Jinchuuriki and the lightning thief
by shamhlu
Summary: Continuation of Demi-jinchuuriki - Zeus master bolt has been stolen and Naruto is missing. Please read the first story, also spoilers for Percy Jackson and the lightning thief.
1. Chapter 1

The gods weren't happy. The reason for this was that many of their children were coming close to causing war, again. To make it worse the children who were doing it were their most powerful. The jinchuuriki. They had been brought into this world but were separated by mysterious circumstances. Unfortunately, because the parents of these children didn't use their original forms when conceiving these children, they were different. Because of this, they could be either Roman or Greek, but neither as well. The children were impossible. That's what led to this current situation, you see, the jinchuuriki have a very strong bond that connects them, they think of themselves as family. This led to a large problem when they were separated and were de-aged by the process of getting them there.

This became a problem as the gods figured that having nine pre-teens, with the power of the bijuu was a bad idea to have randomly roaming a country they had no knowledge of. They also couldn't speak the language which would lead to even more confusion, and considering in their birth world they were bred to be weapons and fighting was what they were best at it was generally a bad idea to have them there. The Olympians quickly sent out all the people they could use to find them, both Roman and Greek.

This led to six of them, two being regular demi-gods, being brought to Lupa, the Roman trainer who tests heroes to see if they are worthy of going to camp Jupiter, and four being brought to camp half-blood by Artemis' hunters. The two regular demi-gods were the brother and sister to Garra, the one tails jinchuuriki. You will notice that one of them is missing if there were nine jinchuuriki and two siblings of one, which is true. One of them never made it to either camp Jupiter or camp half-blood, Naruto Uzumaki, son of Artemis was mistaken as an enemy by the lieutenant of the hunt, Zoe, and was shot. She presumed to have killed him but he survived.

Zoe was banished from the hunt and cursed to walk the world eternally until her mistress son walked on Olympus. But something had happened to Naruto, a prophecy was given to Zoe before she left on her quest, it spoke of her recovering him with nine 'heroes to come'. Zoe began her search, eventually, quite randomly to her, her curse was broken, she ran to Olympus and relayed to her mistress this news assuming her son had returned of his own accord. He wasn't there but Artemis, upon seeing her old friend free offered her a place amongst the hunt once again.

The jinchuuriki, while this was going one, had learned the language and some things about the culture. Those in camp half-blood left to find their brothers and sisters despite being warned that finding them would be nearly impossible. They left anyway and began the search to reunite their family and beg their youngest brother for forgiveness. The last time they had seen him they had betrayed him, and he had left them, they hadn't been forgiven for that.

The jinchuuriki who went to Lupa for the Roman camp learned much from the wolf, unfortunately against the wolf's wishes the jinchuuriki amongst them left to find their brothers as those at the other camp had. Temari and Kankuro, the sister and brother of Garra, began their journey to camp Jupiter after giving their biological brother a goodbye. They felt that they wouldn't be welcome in the group of jinchuuriki. They made it to camp Jupiter and were claimed by their mother Juno, this caused much outrage amongst the Romans as they were shocked that Juno would break her oath and have a demi-god child, never mind children. They joined the fifth cohort, and eventually became valued members of the legion when they showed the powers of chakra.

Both groups of jinchuuriki began their journey to find their lost siblings, this is what caused the ire of the gods. Each group knew of the camps and each knew a version of the gods, because of this they couldn't have the groups meet in fear of another civil war. Unfortunately, the link between the jinchuuriki thanks to the bijuu sealed in them was strong. Through a very strong use of their powers they managed to block off the link temporarily but it wouldn't last long. They had been searching for nearly five years now and were getting dangerously close to discovering the existence of the other camps. Right now, there was a meeting about it and they were not happy with the options they had to choose from.

"We cannot allow the two camps to discover the others existence," Athena said angrily, "they were separated for a reason!" She yelled, the usually strategical goddess now had anger in her usually calm and collected voice.

"I'm not suggesting that." Apollo said, "what I'm saying is let them find each other. Have them not say anything about either camp, and then see what happens." The god of the sun finished.

"We cannot allow any contact between the camps!" Athena yelled.

"Oh, and why not, it's not like they'll declare war on one another, the jinchuuriki consider each other family." Hera said, "the last thing they want is war." She said.

"That's not the point." Athena said angrily, "we can't have any of them have any knowledge of the other camp."

"Oh, listen to you," Ares said with a smirk, "are you purposefully denying knowledge _Minerva_?" He asked, enjoying her angry look.

"Shut it!" Athena said angrily snarling at the war god.

"Enough!" Zeus said, silencing the others, "as much as I hate to admit it," he said looking at Athena, "they won't give up looking for their family, it would be better to tell them of the other groups location and have them meet."

"Father we-" Athena began, shocked that Zeus would go against her.

"No Athena, at the moment they are simply wasting time, and we cannot keep that link closed between them forever, we don't know the consequences of that. The bijuu may break out if we pressure the seals too much." Zeus said with a sigh.

"Father," Artemis began, "even if that were to happen the bijuu won't attack us."

"I don't trust them anyway, besides, if they gather maybe they will help find your… son." Zeus said, even now Artemis having a child still confused him.

"I say we put it to a vote." Poseidon said, "all in favour of allowing them to meet up?"

Poseidon, Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Hermes, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Ares agreed, though Ares did it mostly to spite Athena.

"All against?" Zeus said.

At this Athena, Demeter and Dionysus, who didn't look particularly interested raised their hands.

"Then it is decided, the jinchuuriki shall be re-united." Zeus said, thunder roll in the background dramatically. "Who shall tell them were to meet?"

"I'll go to the Greek's," Apollo said happily, "I'll get to see little Fu again."

"I shall go for the Romans." Hera said, she transformed into Juno and disappeared from Olympus, anxious to see her youngest again.

"Right, then I'll be off to then." Apollo said, and in a bright light he was gone.

(With the Greek jinchuuriki)

The four jinchuuriki consisting of, B, Fu, Yugito and Roshi were currently walking aimlessly around New York. They had been searching for their siblings for years but had found nothing on any of them except Naruto, and that wasn't something particularly good.

"Where could we look?" A now eighteen looking Roshi asked, the jinchuuriki had looked around the entire country for their family. The whole time they hadn't been able to contact their bijuu at all, and hadn't been able to use the link to talk with their brothers and sisters.

"I don't know." Fourteen-year-old Fu replied, angrily.

"Well where haven't we looked?" Yugito replied, her form that of a fourteen-year-old like Fu.

"I may be able to help with that." A voice said, they turned and saw a tall blonde man, he smiled happily at them, Fu particularly drew his gaze.

"Who are you?" Roshi asked protectively, standing in front of the others.

"Why, is that any way to greet your uncle?" The man asked, "hey sweetie." He said his gaze going to Fu, his grin widened.

"Apollo? Dad?" Fu asked, uncertainly.

"Yeah," his smile became softer and he walked over to her, he wrapped his arms around her smaller form in a hug "I'm sorry we never met before, but, well, I'm kind of a god." He said sheepishly.

"Dad." Fu said quietly.

"Yes sweetie." Apollo said.

"Could you let go know?" Fu said.

"Sure," he ended the hug and looked at his daughter, she smiled at him then smacked him on the face. "Oww." He yelped in pain, "I probably deserved that." He then got smacked on the head again, "ok I definitely deserved that one." She then went for another hit but he caught her arm, "ok I think I get it, you're mad but please calm down. I have good news."

"You'd better." The daughter of Apollo said angrily.

"We can bring you to the other jinchuuriki." Apollo said, that got all of them to freeze.

"You know where they are?" Yugito asked hopefully.

"Yeah." Apollo said.

"Where are they?" Roshi asked.

"Well, right now Garra, Hana, Yagura and Utakata are somewhere in Detroit but they are headed here." Apollo said, "I'm here to basically tell you to stay here, they will meet you in the empire state building lobby, about two days from now."

"Wait, how long have you known where they were?" Roshi asked suspiciously.

"Well, we've known were the location of the eight of you were since a couple of days after you got here." Apollo said sheepishly, at seeing his daughter about to smack him again he held his hands up, "wait, there is a very good reason for this."

"It had better be." She said and reluctantly lowered her arm.

"You see, there are actually two camps of demi-gods." Apollo said, "the plan was to originally bring you all to one of them, preferably camp half-blood, but when you were separated we sent loads of groups out looking for you. You were found by Artemis' hunters, who brought you to camp half-blood, the others were found by another party who brought them to another camp. You see there is a reason that there are two camps, one is for Roman demi-gods, the other Greeks, when these two sides mix there tends to be war." Apollo finished.

After a pause, Fu spoke up, "why didn't you just say that?"

"We kind of thought this would end in war between half-bloods, again. That is the worst situation, you see we gods have a Greek and Roman half, if there was war we wouldn't be able to choose sides and things would end badly. The last time was the American civil war." Apollo said, "after all the bloodshed from both sides you can see why we were reluctant."

"Fine." Fu said angrily, "so we just wait here for them?"

"Yeah, oh, I have a present for you as well." He said, he then removed a hair clip from his pocket, it was orange and looked like Fu's current hair clip, "here."

"Umm, thanks." Fu said, she looked at the hairclip.

"It's not just a hairclip." Apollo said, "here," he took it back and clicked a small button on the side, the clip transformed into a quiver of arrows, each arrow had a golden tip, when Fu removed them the tips glowed in the sunlight, the shaft of each arrow was made of celestial bronze. "See, it goes well with the bow I gave you." He said with a smile.

"The what?" Fu asked.

"You never used them, did you?" Apollo asked, slightly sad, "I gave it to your mother as a gift." He reached out and gently took the hair clip she always wore in her hair, he then pushed a small button on the side that went unnoticed to her for years. The clip lengthened and became a beautiful golden bow, there was a blade at the top of it that was made of celestial bronze, Fu looked at it in amazement.

"You gave me this?" She asked, astounded that her father had given her something.

"Yeah," he said, "I told your mother to give you this, I said it would protect you, I guess she thought it was a charm, I did mean it quite literally, click the side and it becomes a hair clip again, there is a button there," he demonstrated with the bow, he then put the clip in her hair again, "and it is the same with the quiver." He then tapped a small button on the side and the quiver became a matching clip, he put that in the other side of her hair, "you may have noticed but it is enchanted to never be lost, it'll always come back to you."

"Thank you." Fu said, she then wrapped her arms around her father and hugged him tightly, Apollo froze for a minute before he smiled and wrapped his arms around his daughter.

"You're welcome." He replied, "I have to go now, I'm sorry." He then began to walk away.

"Bye… dad." Fu said, her father then disappeared in a flash of light.

A few minutes later the jinchuuriki had made their way to the empire state building, they went to a small coffee shop beside it to sit down. They sat in a booth and began to chat.

"So, we just wait?" Yugito asked.

"Yup, we'll meet them there like dad said." Fu said happily, drinking some coffee. The Olympians had given each of them their own allowance before they left, they got a certain amount of money each month to pay for their living arrangements, since they preferred the outdoors they had quite a bit to spend on little things like coffee.

(With the Roman jinchuuriki)

Like Apollo had said, the jinchuuriki were currently walking the streets of Detroit, they had been searching for their siblings and had nearly searched every state.

"Ok, now where?" Hana asked Garra, who held a map of the US with several states crossed out.

"Now we go-" Garra began but was cut off.

"New York." A voice cut him off, they turned and found a woman, she had dark hair and wore a cloak of what looked like goatskin. Her form then shifted, her hair became a brown colour, her eyes became blue. Her clothing stayed the same, she smiled at Garra, "hello Garra." She said, her voice happy but still held authority.

"Mother?" Garra guessed.

The woman smiled, "yes," she said, "I am Juno, I have come to guide you to your siblings." She said, "like I said they are in New York, waiting for you."

"Mother…" Garra trailed off, he stared at the woman who birthed him, conflicting emotions running through him. "Did you hate me?" He finally asked.

"No." Juno said, sounding horrified at the mere prospect, "I love you and your siblings with all my heart, why do you think that?"

"Uncle, he told me you named me Garra to curse me. One who loves only himself, you did this because I… because I killed you." He sounded ashamed at this.

"Garra," Juno said softly, "I did not curse you with that name, I gave you that name to protect you, I even gave the last of that bodies chakra, I imbued it within your sand. It is I who protect you, not Shukaku, why do you think it still automatically protected you when Shukaku left?"

"Thank you, mother." Garra said happily, "we shall go to New York and reunite with the other five."

"Garra, not all of them are there." Juno said sadly, "Yugito, Fu, B and Roshi will be waiting in the lobby of the empire state building. Naruto, is complicated." Juno said wincing slightly.

"What happened to him?" Hana asked.

"He… we don't know exactly." Juno said.

"How can you not know?" Yagura asked, "you are gods."

"That doesn't mean we know all." Juno said sadly.

"What happened to him?" Garra asked.

"He… was shot." Juno said, the others looked shocked, "he had an arrow through his head, but his body disappeared, he entered my husband's domain briefly before he just disappeared. There was a prophecy about it, we have been searching for him."

"What was the prophecy?" Utakata asked, Lupa had informed them of the significance of prophecies in Roman history.

"It said that: 'The cursed huntress shall begin anew; To find the one by her hand, slew; Her future unknown and task made bleak; To succeed her quest nine, she must seek; They will be found with the heroes to come; No path is made, her but a trial has begun; For years, she shall search but the child is dead; No man can be found down the path he's been led.'" Juno said, rhyming off the prophecy.

"Who is the cursed huntress?" Hana asked angrily, figuring that this is the one who attacked her brother.

"Zoe Nightshade, previously lieutenant in the hunt of Artemis, at the moment however she awaits Artemis judgement over the whole issue. She found several things leading to him but no actual trails. My guess is she will be the one to find him in the end."

"Who are the heroes, with the 'nine'?" Yagura asked.

"No one knows, they could be any demi-god in the future, the nine, they could be metaphorical. Prophecies are usually vague like that."

"What does it mean by 'the child is now dead'?" Hana asked, concern rising.

"We don't know, again, he shouldn't have survived a shot like that. No one could have." Juno said.

"He's survived worse." Yagura said sadly, the others agreeing silently.

"Regardless, you must make your way to New York, you shall find the others at the empire state building." Juno said, "now I must leave." She then vanished.

"Well, at least we know where to go now." Hana said.

"Yeah." Garra agreed, looking at the spot his mother stood wistfully.

(With the hunt)

After being unable to track down her father's bolt, Artemis wasn't in the best of moods, and now she had to talk with Zoe, to decide her fate. She wasn't sure what to do, Zoe was one of her oldest friends and she knew that it wasn't entirely Zoe's fault. Someone had been giving her dreams for years, it only made sense that she would react the way she had. At the same time though she blamed her for killing her son, which is something that you shouldn't be able to forgive someone for, yet she longed to have her friend back.

She had been punished enough, one side of her reasoned, no she needed to be killed, another said. She didn't know what to do.

"Zoe," she said, addressing the woman kneeling before her, "I… I've missed you, the whole hunt has, but… I just can't forgive you." Artemis said causing the woman to flinch.

"I know it means very little, but I apologise for what I have done. Mine actions cannot be justified, and thine hatred is fair, but I will find thine child, my lady." Zoe said, her head bowed.

"I know." Artemis said, "I will not give you your title as hunter back fully, but you are welcome to join us. We shall all search for my son, and I think it is wise that you should lead some of my hunters to see if you can find anything." Artemis said, finally coming to a decision.

"Very well, who shalt I lead my lady." Zoe said, happiness in her voice, her punishment was better than the last one at least.

"You shall take a small group with you, three hunters who joined just before you were… you left." Artemis said, "Yugao, Anko, Kurenai." She called out, three women entered the tent, Zoe recognised them as the ones who were 'sisters' to her lady's son.

"Thank you, my lady." Kurenai said, after the three of them were told the situation, they all glared at Zoe, but it was to be expected.

"You shall go now, find any traces of my son and then bring him to me." Artemis said.

The four of them left the tent and began their journey.

As soon as Zoe was far enough away from the hunter's camp she called out to nowhere in particular, "thou can come out now." The three others looked at her weirdly.

They were surprised when another voice called back, "I don't think I want to."

"Who's that?" Yugao asked.

"Mine companion, who hath joined me on my previous journey." Zoe said.

"What's his name?" Anko asked, curiously.

"He… I named him after mine quest." Zoe replied slightly sadly.

"…Naruto." Kurenai said quietly.

"Yeah… now, Naruto, reveal thine self, we have new companions on our trip." Zoe said to the voice.

"Zoe, err… thou shalt have to continue thine journey without mine help." The voice named Naruto called out.

"What, but thou hath been mine companion all these years, why now have thou abandoned me." Zoe asked, sounding quite hurt.

"You know I am none too fond of the hunters. I am afraid I shall have to leave, our paths shall cross again though Zoe." Naruto called.

"But they shalt not hurt thou. They probably have not even heard of thou, I know thou hath had bad history with a hunter but no one shalt harm you now, least not us." Zoe tried.

"I'm sorry, but this is where our paths must end, I pray that you have a safe journey and wish you luck catching your prey but I can no longer be part of thine hunt." The voice said.

"Very well," Zoe said, sadly, "I too which you luck, may your journey be a safe one. May our paths cross again in thine future." Zoe said.

"Goodbye, my friend." The voice called out, before it went silent.

"Who was he?" Yugao asked, knowing that Zoe was probably saddened at the loss of her friend.

"A friend." Zoe said, a sad smile on her face, "the only one, who could see mine face."

(Two days later, empire state building)

The 'Greek' jinchuuriki were waiting nervously, they wondered if their siblings would show up, they were having more doubts and worries as the day went past. Maybe something happened, maybe they were in the wrong place somehow, maybe they came too late even though they were here from the start of the day.

It was now about mid-day and the worries were just getting worse, every time the door opened all four of them would turn to it and look at the person entering. They were beginning to get pains in their necks from doing this too many times. Eventually they turned and they felt pure happiness, there they were, they would recognise them anywhere.

Garra stood there, he was wearing a grey shirt, and black sweats and a pair of black canvas shoes, he had a red trench coat covering most of his form, the gourd on his back looked slightly smaller but had shifted form slightly. It now resembled a backpack with the various markings on it that the sand gourd had before, there were no cracks in it anymore.

Yagura wore a black long sleeved shirt and grey sweats, she had a green scarf around her neck and a dark green coat over the top, she wore pale green canvas shoes. Her staff was strapped to her back, no one was drawing attention to it though or even looking at it, this must be using the mist that apparently helped demi-gods.

Hana was wearing a dark red jacket that zipped up, she had the hood up and had a black hat on under the hood, she wore a red scarf around her neck which covered the bottom half of her face. She had a black trench coat that ended at her knees, baggy sweats that were tied on at the bottom with tape. She wore black trainers and had gloves on as well, her entire body was covered like always. She had a backpack that occasionally gave off steam, showing that she must have re-invented her armour to work under these conditions.

Utakata was wearing a blue jumper with black highlights on the seams, he was wearing black jeans and blue canvas shoes. He had his bubble pipe in his hand and was absentmindedly blowing bubbles as he entered the building.

(POV 'Roman' jinchuuriki perspective)

They entered the building and looked around for their siblings, they were nervous, what if they were late or something had happened. They looked around and eventually came across their siblings standing waiting for them, they looked different from the last time they had seen them.

Yugito was wearing a purple long sleeved shirt with a grey jumper over it, she had jeans blue jeans and blue trainers on. Her ponytail was lying over her right shoulder and was plaited in place.

Roshi was wearing a brown short sleeved shirt with a purple jumper over, he had purple sweats the same colour as his jumper, he wore black trainers. He had a brown beanie and had his purple nose guard on, since he had been going through puberty he had re-grown his beard, it was now shorter than it had been and was just more than stubble at this point.

Fu was wearing blue denim shorts and a white short sleeved shirt, she had a small denim jacket in her arms. She now had two hairclips instead of the singular one she used to have, and had white canvas shoes on, with orange socks on. She also had a large red rucksack on her back that they guessed was in place of the red cylinder she always carried. How she was warm with the current weather was a mystery.

B was wearing a white bandana and a white scarf, he had a white short sleeved shirt and black baggy sweats on. He had a white hoody on and had his sunglasses on even though they were inside. He wore black trainers and had white fingerless gloves on with red highlights on it. Samehada was on his back, he had stolen it when he killed Kisame, the first attempt to catch him had failed horribly. The sword now sat on his back, rattling gently occasionally, there was cloth around it, it must take a lot of mist to cover up the fact that it was a living sword. B had been using the living sword to hold his other swords in, not that the sword minded, if it got to eat some of B's chakra occasionally.

They stood there, staring at each other for a few seconds, and then ran towards each other, they met in the middle, hugging happily. They stayed in that group hug for a few minutes before breaking and standing back.

"We missed you." Fu began.

"Yeah, where have you been?" Yagura asked.

"We've been looking for you for years." Yugito replied.

"We have too, as soon as we learned to speak English and knew enough about the culture." Hana said.

"Same." Fu said.

"I don't suppose you know anything more about Naruto?" Yagura said almost pleadingly.

"What do you know?" Yugito asked.

"Almost nothing." Utakata said sadly.

"We'll tell you what we know." Roshi said, he then explained who Naruto was shot by Artemis' hunter, how Artemis cursed her. He told them everything about camp half-blood and the Greek demi-gods, they were surprised at the differences. Once he was done Garra spoke up.

"We haven't been to the Roman camp, there is a separate area where we learned about all of the Roman culture." He went on to explain how they learned from Lupa, how Kankuro and Temari went to the Roman camp and, as far as they knew, where fine.

"Wow." Fu said, "so… now what?" She finished.

"Now, we find our brother." Garra said.

"How?" Yugito asked, "we've looked everywhere in the country."

"We'll split up, try and open the link again, maybe that was how the gods have been separating us." Roshi said.

"Right, I'll see now, Utakata you too." Garra said, "the rest of you stay awake, make sure that we don't stand out."

"Yeah, because we definitely didn't before." Fu said sarcastically.

Garra and Utakata entered the link and soon found themselves in the familiar surroundings of the centre of the link. There they found eight sleeping bijuu and one awake fox looking at them happily.

 **"Where the hell have you lot been?"** Kurama asked the jinchuuriki.

"We were brought to another world." Garra began, the two of them then told Kurama everything about the new world of gods, in the end Kurama looked worried.

 **"Damn it, you need to find Naruto."** The fox said.

"We know, but he is nearly impossible to find, we've searched the country." Utakata said.

 **"You don't understand, there is only one way that he could survive a wound to the head like that, and if he did it, bad things will happen."** Kurama said.

"What did he do?" Garra asked worriedly.

 **"It's… complicated, he'd been trying to create a new jutsu, based off our ability to reform. He made one of the most complicated seals ever as the perfect backup plan. But he never actually got to test it, because you know, he made it to only work when he's fatally wounded. The side effects though, theoretically, could be disastrous."** Kurama said.

"How does it work?" Utakata asked.

 **"Even I don't know, he started designing it before any of you were caught, to save you but, well it took too long but he eventually completed it. It is in essence extreme clones, they are living breathing clones of him, depending on the injury it will split him into clones. The big danger however is psychological damage though, he needs to be brought together again, and quickly, the longer he stays like this the more individual the clones get."** Kurama said.

"Is there any way to find him that you can think of?" Garra asked.

 **"He'll be near something powerful, he made it so that he would have an instinctive 'feel' for power. He figured since we were the most powerful chakra entities he would be drawn to us immediately. Since we're sealed in you though we won't give off too much energy, so he will probably be drawn towards the gods."** Kurama said.

"The gods hide a great deal of their power though, when we see them they give off the minimum they can." Garra said.

 **"Then what would be the next most powerful source of power?"**

"Heroes to come…" Utakata muttered under his breath.

 **"What?"**

"The prophecy, Naruto is with nine demi-gods, he split himself into nine pieces." Utakata said.

"That doesn't narrow it down though, he could easily pass himself off as a demi-god and no one would know, we have no clue as to where he would be." Garra said.

 **"He may not be human."** Kurama said, the two of them looked at the bijuu, **"the process takes a lot of energy, he used sage chakra for that, he never actually tested it but I could guess that he would automatically enter sage mode and become a fox."**

"No man can be found down the path he's lead." Garra said.

"So, we're looking for nine foxes, with nine random demi-gods, either Greek or Roman, since he could go to either of the camps, anywhere in America?" Utakata asked.

 **"Well, at least we narrowed it down a bit."** Kurama said.

"Can you not find him, he was your jinchuuriki?" Utakata said.

 **"Not anymore, when you left this world since I wasn't in him he isn't a jinchuuriki, there is no way of tracking him down. As a matter of fact that is why I'm the only one awake. The others got bored and just decided to sleep until I wake them, the Elemental Nations has become quite peaceful, they fear me again and since no one could seal me I just walk about. If no one tries to fight me I'm fine."** Kurama said.

"So, you're stuck there?" Garra asked.

 **"No, if I wanted to I could leave and go to your world using the link, it would probably hurt whoever I did it to a bit but it could be done."** Kurama said.

"Right, well, we'd better get going, we need to tell the others what happened to Naruto."

They left the mindscape and soon found themselves back in the real world, the blinked and sat up, their siblings looking at them expectantly.

"We know how to find Naruto." Garra said.


	2. Chapter 2

Yagura couldn't sleep. After hearing, what the kyuubi knew of Naruto's condition it was all she could think about, her brother was out there, he was alive. Relief coursed through her, as long as he was alive she was happy. The fact that they now had to find all nine of him quickly worried her, Kurama didn't know much other than what Naruto had once said in passing.

After trying to plan out their next move and coming up blank, they decided to stop in a hotel for the night. So, she sat awake in the room she shared with Yugito, Fu and Hana trying to get to sleep, and failing. Every time she closed her eyes all she could think about was Naruto, how was he? Where was he? Was he ok?

She sighed to herself and sat up, she walked over to the window and stared out at the city of New York. So different from her home, so bright, so big. She had never seen buildings as big and even after all this time it still surprised her, the sheer size of the place, it was so alien to her. She caught sight of the empire state building, above it she could make out the silhouette of a city in the clouds. Olympus.

Even from earth at night, it was a sight to see, the giant structure hung bathed in shadow, she saw temples and statues, even from far away.

She sighed to herself and turned away, looking into her room, her gaze shifting to the sleeping forms of her sisters. She smiled happily, after years of being separated she was happy that they could all be so close, her brothers were in the other room, just metres away. Except Naruto. Her smile faded.

She took one more look out the window, glancing at the night sky the stars were barely visible here. Then she turned to her bed, getting in she sighed, she tried once more to get some sleep, her eyes closed and she finally managed to drift off.

She was at a beach, the ocean breeze washed over her and she could smell the salt of the water she smiled as she watched the moon cast a silvery glow to the water. She sat there for a while before she realised something, she wasn't alone. Years of ninja training had her reach for her staff as she turned, but she found it wasn't there, but it wasn't needed.

The figure before her seemed familiar, but she couldn't remember where she knew him from. He was wearing flip flops on his feet and had khaki shorts on, a shirt covered in flowers, she remembered seeing them in a shop, they were under the banner 'Hawaiian shirts'. His hair was black and messy, and trapped beneath a fisherman's cap, he had a fishing rod in one hand and a box, presumably with bait, in the other. His eyes were sea green and glinted with mirth, a smile was on his face as he looked at her and he seemed to give off a calm aura. He reminded Yagura of the beech they were on right now, calm and peaceful.

"Hello Yagura," his voice held warmth, and as he seemed to wash over her like a calm sea breeze.

"Who are you?" Yagura asked, he looked sad for a moment before brightening up and smiling again.

There was a twinkle in his eye as he spoke, "I am Poseidon, god of the seas, earth shaker, storm bringer, father of horses," he then smiled softly at her, "I'm your father." He said softly, he walked over to her and she didn't move, her father was here.

Her whole life she had always thought what it would be like to meet her father, at the start it was wistful, a dream, he would come and lift her up, bring her into a hug and she would cry into his shoulder. He would soothe her with soft words and then promise not to leave again, they would stay like that for a moment before he would lift her and bring her to his home where they'd live happily.

Unfortunately, that childish dream vanished, becoming bitter, instead of a beautiful moment it became a moment of anger. She would yell at him and he would try to explain why he left, this would only end with her being the one leaving him, he would sit there looking sad and she would enjoy her revenge.

When she heard from Kush-Artemis that her dad was alive but physically couldn't come to see her she felt hopeful again. Maybe he did love her, maybe it would be like her childhood dream, but no, he never showed up, he didn't even write or try to send her a message, hell he didn't even give her a sign that he ever cared. So, she waited, and once more became bitter, maybe he didn't care, that saddened her immensely, so she searched for the other jinchuuriki, her real family.

Now though, he was here, and she had no idea what to do, should she yell at him? Should she hug him? She just sat there, staring at him, and he stared back, eventually it was he who broke the silence, he sat down in a fisherman's chair that was suddenly there and offered her a seat in the other. That too hadn't been there a minute ago.

She sat down and they sat there in silence, this continued until her father spoke, "you know, I didn't know what to expect from you," he said, "Artemis spoke highly of you, said you were a lovely girl."

Yagura couldn't help the blush that coated her cheeks, "she only knew me when I was little."

Poseidon smiled, "you still are little." He said teasingly.

Yagura scowled, "why didn't you try to contact me?"

Poseidon's smile wavered, he looked out on the horizon sadly, "I… I was scared." Yagura was surprised, "I didn't know what to say, didn't know how to say it. I still don't." He put his head in his hands, "I'm sorry, I thought… Your mother," she scowled, "I thought she would stay by you, I thought you would be safe. I only left you there because she begged me to leave you there." Yagura was shocked, "she loved you so much, I was going to bring you here, to my world, but she wouldn't let me. She didn't know I was a god, but she wanted to stay and I had to go. She fought so hard for you. I gave in, promising I'd come back for you."

Yagura was speechless, she had no memories of her mother, but Isobu said that she left, she didn't want her. To hear that she fought for her, that she was wanted… it hurt that so much could change how someone looked at her.

"I'm sorry I was never there for you, I wanted to be but…" Poseidon looked up at her and she was shocked to see tears spilling from his eyes. Rain began to fall, and the sea thrashed, a storm was approaching, her father saw this and immediately his face hardened, the rain stopped and the storm with it. The water still hit the beach harder, the waves harsher, she could tell her father was trying to calm but was just too sad, too angry, too emotional.

She did the first thing she could think of, she hugged her father. He froze and the sea did as well, the entire ocean stilled, the tide stopped and for a second the entire ocean held its breath, awaiting its masters call. Then it calmed, the waves lapped at the sand gently, the sky cleared and the clouds lightened, the moon shone down on the ocean, casting a beautiful glow on it.

"I… I don't blame you." Yagura said, shocking even herself, "I… I used to be bitter, I used to think that you abandoned me, that you simply didn't care. I hated you." Poseidon winced and though she couldn't see his face she knew he frowned, "but, I…" she hesitated, "I don't, not anymore, sure I'm annoyed that you didn't call, or give me a sign, but you're trying. I can't blame you for not being there when I was younger, that wasn't your fault you did what you thought was best. And though I am very angry at you for not trying to contact me, when you knew where I was," she broke apart from the hug and glared at him lightly. "I don't hate you." Her glare lightened.

Poseidon looked at her and smiled, "thank you." He said.

The broke apart and simply sat there, silently for a few minutes, "that doesn't mean I'm not annoyed, you have five years to make up for, Mr." She said angrily, but the grin on her face showed how happy she was to finally meet her dad.

"I know." He said, "I can't exactly be there for you much, but if you ever need me, all you need to do is ask." He grinned at her, "and I'll talk to you as much as I can in your dreams."

"Thanks." She said and they settled into a comfortable silence, neither wanting to break it. Eventually dawn broke on the horizon and Yagura stood up, "I should be going soon."

"Yeah," her father said sadly, "before you go, I just want you to know that, no matter what, I love you."

Yagura smile back to him, "yeah." And with that she woke up.

After getting changed and waking her sisters up, Yagura made her way to the boy's room and found them up and ready. They left the hotel and began to talk about their next plan of action.

"I think we should split up, we can cover more ground that way." Roshi said.

"No." Yagura said, they all looked at her, "we just got back together, I don't want to split up now. Also, I don't think it matters how much ground we cover, we've each been around most of the country, if we didn't find him then, we won't now. Besides, now we have an idea of where he is."

"What do you mean?" Asked Fu.

"With heroes to come." Roshi said, "he'll be at one of the camps, at least part of him will be."

"But which one? Camp half-blood or camp Jupiter?" Utakata asked.

"Camp Jupiter." Garra said.

"Camp half-blood." Yugito said at the same time.

"We'll flip a coin." Fu said, sensing an argument coming, "fifty-fifty chance. We'll go to one, if he's not there we'll go to the other." She produced a drachma and looked around her brothers and sisters, "heads we go to camp half blood," she looked at Yugito, "tails we go to camp Jupiter," she looked at Garra, "seem fair?"

"Yeah." They muttered.

Fu smiled and flipped the coin, it flew up into the air, twisting, turning, deciding their fate. At this point, there were two different outcomes: One they find their brother, begin repairing their relationship and he forgives them, they eventually fix him back together and he loves them like he used to. Or option two.

Unfortunately, they put their choice into the hands of fate, and the fates were cruel. Instead of giving them option one, they were left with option two, an unknown future lay before them.

The coin landed on tails.

"Camp Jupiter it is." Fu said.

As they set off down the streets of New York, Yagura saw someone she wasn't expecting, Poseidon, her father, was standing across the street. She told the others to wait there and went to talk to him.

"I thought I wouldn't see you for a while." She said, he grimaced.

"I did as well, but recent events have changed things, I need you to go upstate, look for a school, Yancy academy, wait for the students to start to leave, once you do you'll understand. If you do this you won't have to worry about your trip to camp Jupiter."

"What? Wait." But he was gone, he faded in a mist.

Yagura went back to her siblings who looked surprised, "was that your dad?" Utakata asked.

"Yeah." Yagura said quietly, "we need to go upstate, Yancy academy, dad said he needed to show me something."

"What about camp? What about Naruto?" Yugito asked angrily.

"He said he'd give us a lift there, if I do this."

The jinchuuriki shared a glance before Fu shrugged, "if we get a lift it will speed this up, did he say what he wanted to show you?"

"No, just that it was important." Yagura said.

"Fine, let's get going." Roshi said.

They made their way upstate and, after asking for directions, found Yancy, it looked okay as schools went, of course, none of them ever had much of an education, most of which was killing orientated. They picked a good spot on top of a building overviewing the schools exit and sat there, no one would see them, there wasn't much room so Fu decided to hover to the side and Yugito clung to the wall with her chakra.

They waited until students started to trickle out, it seemed like it was a boarding school and they were getting off for their holidays. Slowly the students came out in clumps, groups of five or six were idly chatting about where their parents were taking them. Rich kids.

The jinchuuriki silently watched, they listened to student's brag about how they were going to the alps, or how they would cruise the Caribbean. The eight of them were confused as to why they were told to go here, until one student spoke up.

"I'm just going back to the city." He said, the jinchuuriki all looked at this one child and it all clicked.

Yagura looked annoyed, "he could have just said." She muttered, it seemed that she was not the only child of Poseidon after all, the boy they were staring at had messy black hair, a healthy tan and sea green eyes. They wouldn't have thought much of him except they had seen someone with those exact characteristics only a few minutes prior. He was a son of Poseidon.

After sitting there and watching him they decided to follow him, they heard from Chiron that there was some prophecy that said the child of either Zeus, Hades or Poseidon would either save or destroy Olympus. So, they wanted to know a little bit about their potential saviour or destroyer. They watched as he made his way to one of the buses and followed him on, paying the driver and taking their seats, close to each other and their target.

He was sitting with a scrawny kid who looked slightly older than the demi-god, he had acne and whiskers on his face. They watched him as he got on the bus, he had a slight limp but seemed fine other than that. The ones who spent time in camp-half blood pegged him for a satyr and guessed he was going to bring him to camp.

The satyr noticed them and seemed to have a mini stroke, it seemed he recognised them, he stared for a moment but turned away when the son of Poseidon took notice. He glanced at them and seemed to see through the mist that hid Yagura's staff as a fishing rod, he eyed it carefully before glancing at the other passengers. They all seemed to ignore it so he eventually stopped eyeing them.

He sat there in silence for a while, and they did the same, eventually it seemed he grew tired of the silence and turned to his friend.

"Looking for kindly ones." He said and whatever composure the satyr had vanished, he was shaking so bad it looked like he was trapped in a freezer.

"W-what – what do you mean?" He asked, he glanced at the jinchuuriki as if hoping they held the answer to any question he had.

He then claimed that he had spied on him and their teacher, Mr Brunner, after he said something about a horse man silhouette the Greek jinchuuriki guessed Chiron. They listened to his explanation and felt sorry, he didn't know about the Greek world and it seemed everyone was keeping it from him.

"What's the summer solstice deadline?" He asked, the satyr winced and stuttered out his answer.

"Look, Percy… I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers…" Fu sniggered and Roshi gave her a look, she just shrugged. They looked back and saw that Fu had drawn attention to them, both Percy and the satyr were looking, Percy had an unreadable expression while the satyr looked like they were going to blow him up.

Percy leant in close and whispered in the satyr's ear, the jinchuuriki could hear him, they were ninja after all. "Who are they, and why do you look so scared by them, Grover?"

"Percy," Grover said, fear in his voice, "don't stare at them." He warned, doing his best not to stare at them.

"But who are they?" He asked, completely ignoring the satyr, he seemed to have begun a staring contest with Fu, who had a serious look on her face, she concentrated hard. Grover whimpered slightly at his friend, who was distracted by the green haired girl. Suddenly the girl smirked and winked at him, Percy just blinked, completely confused, she giggled into her hand, Percy blushed slightly.

"Percy," Grover said, snapping him out of his confusion, "don't stare at them." He whispered.

"But who are they?" Percy whispered back.

Grover gulped and looked at them again, his eyes landed on Yagura, then they widened and he turned back to Percy, he turned between the two of them a few more times before muttering about how not good this was.

"Grover." Percy said, "what-" Just then the bus stopped the scent of rotten eggs emerged along with a thick black smoke from the dashboard. The jinchuuriki frowned and followed the driver off as he cursed his way out of the bus, the rest of the passengers followed and Percy found himself looking across the road.

Three old women, the fates. The jinchuuriki recognised the beings, three old women, knitting socks befitting the bijuu sat there, they looked at Percy.

Grover panicked but was ignored by all demi-gods present. Electric blue yarn sat in their hands, suddenly Atropos raised her scissors and brought them to the yarn.

SNIP

The thread was cut, the jinchuuriki glared at the sisters, Grover looked pale and Percy just looked confused. Grover rushed Percy onto the bus and the jinchuuriki just sat there, staring at the Moirai in anger, Yagura was especially angry, she was going to lose another brother by the looks of it.

The boarded the bus, sending dirty looks at the fates as they went, the bus _miraculously_ started working again. The rest of the trip was pretty boring for the jinchuuriki, Grover kept muttering not again and handed Percy a business card, saying to visit if he needed help. The jinchuuriki kept eying Percy sadly, but didn't say a word.

When they made it to the next stop they watched as Percy ditched Grover, not that they blamed him, and then made their way away from the son of Poseidon. They had seen enough.

Yagura looked up and saw her father looking at them glumly, she crossed over and stood in front of him. "Well." She said angrily, "was there a reason you wanted us to see that? Or did you just want to show off your son."

"I didn't particularly want the others to see but I knew that you would need to." He looked up at the grey sky solemnly. "Have you noticed the weather?"

Yagura grumbled something under her breath, but then spoke loud enough for him to hear, "yes. You get in a row with your brother again?"

"You could say that." He looked down, his face a mask of seriousness, "my brother," he said the word like it were an insult, "has lost his bolt."

Yagura was shocked for a moment, "what? How do you - how did he? What happened?" She blurted out.

"It was stolen." Poseidon said, "and he believes I did it."

"Well… did you?" Yagura asked.

"No!" Poseidon yelled, "I don't want his bolt, stupid lightning, to boring and flashy, only the drama queen would use it." Poseidon took a deep breath, "but he still thinks I did it. At first he thought I did it through you, but you were no-where near Olympus and all your siblings parents agreed that you wouldn't. Percy though…" He sighed, "he was here in New York, to Zeus that is as much proof as he needs."

"So, you want to keep him hidden?" Yagura asked.

"No… it's too late for that, a fury sent by my… other brother found him. By now he knows, soon word will reach Zeus, one way or another."

"So, what do you want me to do, I can't guard him, I can't launch an investigation into the bolts location, I have to go to camp Jupiter, I have to find Naruto!"

"I know, but he will have a quest, he will have to be the one to find the bolt, it won't happen for some time, but something tells me you will run into him. I only showed him to you so that this if you do run into him you'll help him. You know what he looks like now, help him if you get the chance." Poseidon said rather rudely.

"I…" Yagura looked at her siblings, it was then that it hit her, now they weren't her only siblings, and now she would do her job as his big sister. "If I run into him, I will help him."

"Good, now, as promised, in his hand were a set of keys, go to the harbour, there you'll find a ship worthy of a daughter of Poseidon." He handed her the keys and before she could say how sailing to San Francisco would waste more time, he was gone.

"Damnit!" She yelled and stormed off to her siblings.

"So…" Fu said, "something wrong?"

"No, dad just said to go to the harbour." She then walked off without waiting for a response.

When they made it to the harbour they easily spotted the ship that Poseidon gave to his daughter, the Pegasus trotting along the roof was a dead giveaway. The ship was a yacht, it had three floors, the middle floor being in the centre of the deck, it was painted blue with green along the edges. It looked about big enough to hold all eight of them, though not comfortably.

Yagura sighed before stepping onto the boat, her siblings following suit, immediately the Pegasus stood at attention and bowed before her. It was grey with some black spots on the back, its wings, when unfurled, would take up most of the ship, but thankfully they were tucked in.

'M'lady.' A voice spoke in Yagura's head and she looked at the horse in surprise. The other jinchuuriki made to explore the ship, while Yagura dealt with the psychic horse.

"I can understand you?" She said, the Pegasus raised its head and looked at her.

'Of course, M'lady, all children of Poseidon can understand horses and sea life.' The female voice of the horse telling her its gender.

"What is your name?" She asked.

'Skye, M'lady.' She said.

"Well Skye, it's nice to meet you, but… what are you doing here?"

'Lord Poseidon told me to give you a message, he also said I am supposed to look out for you.' Skye said, puffing her chest up with pride.

"Well, what was my father's message?" Yagura asked.

'He said that the boat will get you to the Romans quickly, he said the magic of the boat will let you go where there's water.'

"That seems pretty obvious, it's a boat, it goes on water."

The horse snorted, 'no, it can go to water, it is magic, look in the navigation room, it's the top one. I'm going to camp half blood, there's only unicorns in camp Jupiter and they are rude to Pegusi, they're just jealous.'

Yagura sighed and made her way to the top of the ship, in the third-floor room it looked easy enough to steer, a wheel to turn and the throttle for the speed. Several more dials and buttons were on the consoles, as she looked over them she instantly knew what they were and how to use them. The GPS, clutch, depth finder, radio, she just knew, must be a child of Poseidon thing.

The one thing she didn't understand was a small console, it looked like map of the whole world was on it. It looked kind of like a satnav but they weren't used on boats. Sure, enough a select destination icon sat below the map.

"May as well see how long it will take." She said and typed in CAMP JUPITER, a buffering icon appeared before the map zoomed in on San Francisco, a circle appeared around the Caldecott tunnel and the area near it. "Huh, so that's where it is, I thought we were going to need to ask for directions."

The screen zoomed out and showed their location, as well as about fifteen other circles on the map, she clicked on the closest one and it zoomed in. Locust Lake, beside it was a number one, Yagura was confused as to what this meant and leant on the console, unfortunately, pressing one of the buttons, if she had looked at it before she would have read 'START' in Greek.

Before she knew it, she was underwater, not dangerous to her, but very surprising, since, most of the time boats tend to keep the water out. She swam there for a bit, before realising she wasn't getting wet, another strange thing, but one that she was fine with. She left the cabin and found that the boat was about a meter underwater, but was slowly rising, like a submarine.

It finally emerged from the water and she looked around, and she looked shocked, instead of the harbour at New York, they were now in a lake. Trees were on all sides, a sea of green replacing the New York skyline, a school of trout passed by the boat, each calling out to her, calling her 'Princess'.

That was what brought her out of her shock, her a princess? Never. Unfortunately, she never got the chance to reprimand them for this as the door leading below deck opened and her siblings each leapt out, B leading the charge. He immediately went over to the side of the ship and emptied his guts, closely followed by Utakata and Fu. Roshi looked ready to join them while Garra looked dizzy, Hana looked completely fine, but it was hard to tell with the mask and helmet, but Yugito looked shaken.

"What the hell was that!?" Fu yelled after her breakfast made a surprise reappearance.

"Our way to camp Jupiter." Yagura said with a grin.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Sorry for not uploading for a while, there's been a lot on my plate, but, I'm back now, I've re-done a few chapters but I'm not finished yet, though I should be able to upload a lot more often. So, without further adieu:**

Montauk was a special place to Percy Jackson, he and his mom had been going there since Percy was a baby, his mom had been going even longer. It was also where Percy's parents met. Sally Jackson grew younger the closer she got to the beach, her eyes glimmered the colour of the ocean and she seemed to relax more.

So, it is probably strange that Percy felt worried, you see this place held something of great importance to him. This, was where he made his first friend, and for the most part of his life, his only friend. Percy was worried because he hadn't seen this particular friend in nearly three years because his step father didn't let Sally and Percy go. He claimed it was 'too expensive' as he lost both his and his wife's pay-check to a royal flush.

So, Percy was very apprehensive of this particular trip to his favourite place in the world with his favourite person in the world. What if he had gone, or had forgotten him. Maybe he would never see his companion ever again. What if he had found someone else to feed him blue candy and blue meat. Maybe he had become fed up of the loneliness of the beach and had moved on.

As these thoughts fought a veritable war, alongside the butterfly's in his stomach who appeared to have inherited his ADHD and were bouncing along the inside of his gastric track. His mother stopped the car, they were here, it was time to see if he was still here.

As he moved to get out, his mother gently put a hand on his shoulder, she looked him in the eye, sadly trying to convey the whole 'don't be disappointed if he isn't here' vibe, something she pulled off miraculously well. "Percy… we've been gone a long time, just… understand that he will probably be gone." Percy nodded, and got out of the car.

They made their way to the cabin, both looking around for a flash of silver, ears pricked to hear the yips or barks. They both tried to hide it, but they were tense with apprehension, Sally too was nervous to see her sons first friend, he had become a part of their family, more so than Gabe would ever be. Their journey to the cabin yielded no results in their attempts to find him.

By sunset, they had reached the cabin, and set to work fixing up the place, opening the windows and cleaning any dust, spiders and previous patron's food. They then went on a walk on the beach, hopefully to find their third companion.

It was now or never, either he would be here, or he wouldn't, maybe he had moved away, found somewhere better. They walked to the end of the beach and there he was. He sat on the edge of the beach, dozing away, apparently, unnoticed to everyone else. His silver fur gleamed in the evening sun, making it look like fire dancing on a pale backdrop, he was asleep. He waited for them, Percy rubbed the tears that absolutely didn't exist away.

"Anchor!" He called to the fox, who now sat up and was looking at them happily. He first met the fox when he was seven, just before he had to leave, he asked the fox to stay here. When they came back the next year he was still here, they named him Anchor, because he was one of the things that kept them here. He hugged the much bigger fox as it came over to him.

Sally joined them in the hug and he happily licked her on the face, they all laughed and Percy pet him gently. He purred happily, something Percy never questioned, he jumped off them and practically dragged Percy too his feet. His eyes conveying the message of exactly what he wanted, Percy took out some blue beef jerky, the fox munched on it with gusto. He looked up, his eyes saying, 'you owe me two years' worth of jerky.'

They walked around the beach, happily playing fetch with the fox, who acted more like a dog now, they fed some of the seagull's blue corn chips, munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy and all the other free samples Sally had brought from her work. Anchor was happily munching on some of the blue skittles, they gave him occasionally.

The blue food came about after Gabe told Sally there was no such thing as blue food. They had a fight, a small one in hindsight. Ever since, Sally went out of her way to eat blue food. She baked blue birthday cakes, mixed blueberry smoothies, brought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. That, along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs Ugliano, was proof that she wasn't totally taken by Gabe, or just common sense, probably both.

After the sun, had set, they made a fire. They cooked hot dogs and marshmallows, all blue of course. Sally told stories of when she was a kid, before her parent's death. She said about the books she wanted to wright someday, when she could quit the candy shop.

Eventually, Percy asked about what always came to mind when they were in Montauk, Percy's father.

Sally's eyes looked like the sea on a foggy day and Percy prepared himself to hear the same story she always told, what he never got tired of hearing.

"He was kind, Percy," she began, "tall, handsome and powerful. But gentle too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes." She fished out a blue jelly bean and threw it up for Anchor to catch. "I wish he could see you Percy, he'd be so proud."

"How old was I?" Percy asked, "I mean…when he left?"

She stared into the flames, her eyes softened, in the fire light they looked comforting, "he was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here, at this beach. This cabin."

"But…he knew me as a baby."

"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, hut he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."

Percy tried to remember something… a warm glow, a smile, they proud grin of a father. He assumed his father had known him as a baby, Sally never said it outright, but still. He'd felt it must have been true. Now, to be told that he'd never seen him… Percy felt angry, maybe it was stupid, but he resented him for going on the ocean voyage, for not marrying his mom. He'd left, now they were stuck with Smelly Gabe.

"Are you going to send me away again?" Percy asked, "to another boarding school?"

She took a marshmallow from the fire, it dripped down like it was drooling.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think…I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want me around?" Percy immediately regretted saying that, even Anchor gave him a look that said, 'not cool dude'.

His mom's eyes began to water, tears threatening to escape. She held onto Percy's hand and squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."

He remembered Mr Brunner's words, about leaving Yancy. "Because I'm not normal." He said, bitterly.

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realise how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."

"Safe from what?"

Their eyes locked, and something clicked, floods of memories came back, all the weird, scary things that had ever happened, some he'd tried to forget. In the third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked Percy on a playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he left, growling, like a dog that didn't get its prey. No one believed little Percy when he said under the hat the man only had one eye, in the middle of his forehead. Before that, in preschool, a teacher set Percy in a cot with a snake in it, his mom had screamed when she wound Percy playing with a limp, scaly rope, he'd strangled to death with meaty toddler hands.

In every school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and he was forced to move.

He felt he should have told his mom about the old ladies in the fruit stand, and Mrs Dodds at the art museum, about the weird hallucination he'd had about slicing his maths teacher in half with a sword, upon which she turned to dust. But he couldn't get himself to tell her, he felt that this would end his trip to Montauk and he wouldn't see his friend for a further year.

"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," Sally said, "they told me it was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy, the place your father wanted to send you. And I just…I just can't stand to do it."

"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"

"Not a school," she said softly, "a summer camp."

Why would his father, who hadn't stayed long enough to see him born, talk to his mom about a summer camp? And if it's so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?

"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in Percy's eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I-I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying goodbye to you for good."

"For good? But if it's only a summer camp…"

She turned to the fire, if Percy asked any more questions, he knew from her expression, she would cry.

That night, Percy had a vivid dream.

It was storming on the beach, two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the water.

The eagle swooped down, slashing the horses muzzle with its talons. The horse reared up and kicked the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a terrifyingly monstrous voice chuckled beneath the earth, goading them into fighting harder.

Percy ran towards them, knowing he'd to stop them from killing each other, but he was running in slow motion. He would be too late. The eagle flew down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, Percy screamed, No!

He awoke, waking the fox that lay across him, making the poor creature fall to the floor.

Outside, it was storming, the kind that cracked trees and blew houses down. There was no eagle or horse on the beach.

Sally awoke to the thunder clap. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."

Over the roar of the wind a distant bellow sounded, an angry, tortured sound that terrified all who heard it.

Then there was another noise, someone yelling, pounding on the door.

Sally sprung up, in her nightgown and threw the door open.

Grover stood in the doorway rain pouring behind him, hooves out and fur clinging to him because of the rain, he gave off the smell of a wet barnyard animal.

"Searching all night," he gasped, "what were you thinking?"

Sally looked at Percy, terrified, not afraid of Grover, but why he'd come. "Percy," she said, screaming over the rain, "what happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

Percy froze at the sight of Grover, his eyes caught on the furry legs he now had.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" Grover yelled, "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

"Percy. Tell me now!" Sally said in a stern tone she'd never used before.

He stammered out everything, Mrs Dodds, Mr Brunner and Grover talking, the three old ladies and the eight-weird people who followed them, his mom grew paler by the second.

She grabbed her purse, tossed Percy his jacket and said, "get to the car. Both of you. Go!"

Grover ran to the car, well, he didn't run, he was trotting, and they made it to the car, unfortunately leaving a small fox in the cabin. His ears flattened down on his head, and he whined at the sight of the three of them leaving, he put his face in the ground and put his paws on his nose.

"Percy." He said quietly.

He was unaware of the presence that watched him, in the dark of the night he didn't hear the dark chuckle of a Titan.

(At camp half-blood)

 **In a hole in the ground a pair of eyes opened, blue eyes shone in the darkness, the eyes looked out to the entrance to his den. He sat up and made his way to the exit, before leaving he listened for noise, a nose emerged from the den, sniffing, this was followed by a snout, and a head. Ears perked, acting as radar dishes to hear any disturbance, a paw emerged, then another, until the entire creature was out, silver fur gleamed in the glow of the moon.**

 **In a flash of silver, the fox was gone, he was nothing more than a flash as he made his way to the big house, already he knew he wasn't the only one awake. A flash of blonde and orange made its way to the large structure commonly referred to as the big house, the fox was suddenly mixed in with the blonde. A hand reached up and plucked the fox from his perch amongst her hair, Annabeth Chase looked down at the fox in her hands, her grey eyes glared before softening at the adorable pout on his face.**

 **"** **Isn't there somewhere more comfortable for you to sit in?" She asked.**

 **"** **Nope, your conditioner has made sure of that." The fox replied, now normally a fox talking would be something that would shock normal people. Annabeth Chase wasn't normal, for one thing she had a talking fox, for another she was the demi-god daughter of the Greek goddess, Athena.**

 **"** **Fine, but someday I'm going to find a way to get you out of my hair." She said, smiling at her joke.**

 **"** **Clever, is this what the great daughter of wisdom spends her time thinking about, forget architecture, you should start your own comedy show." The fox said, "besides, you could never say no to me." The fox bragged.**

 **"** **Oh, yeah?" She said, instead of answering the fox turned to her, his eyes taking up most of his face, they glistened with unshed tears, he was pouting so much it physically hurt. "…Ok, just stop pouting, Whiskers." Annabeth muttered, defeat written all over her face.**

 **"** **See. Now, what are you doing out of bed?" Whiskers asked, eyebrow raised.**

 **"** **Nothing, nothing at all." Annabeth said, too quickly for her to be speaking truthfully.**

 **"** **Come on Annie, you know you want to tell me," his face going back to the teary visage it was before.**

 **"** **N-n-n," She stuttered as she closed her eyes, "stop with that look."**

 **"** **Annie," Whiskers said, "don't you trust me," he whined sadly, and Annabeth opened her eyes a crack, but, much like Medusa, one look was all it took.**

 **"** **Dammit," she swore, "fine, I'm going to-" She was cut off as they reached the big house, where Chiron was waiting for them, a look of mild irritation on his face.**

 **"** **Hello Annabeth, Whiskers." The centaur said.**

 **"** **You're back!" Annabeth exclaimed, rushing to hug the trainer of heroes, who replied with a gentle hug of his own.**

 **"** **It's good to see you again." Chiron said with a smile.**

 **"** **So, how did it go?" Annabeth asked, "is it another child of Zeus?" Annabeth guessed, her analytical mind having discovered the reason for Chiron's absence for the past few months, of course an invisibility cap also helped.**

 **"** **I'm unsure, but if all goes well he should be here soon, Grover is with him, and he lives in New York, it should be a quick journey, so I'd expect them here in the next day or so." Chiron said.**

 **"** **Well-" As Annabeth started to speak Whiskers perked up, someone was coming this way, by the looks of it Chiron also heard their heavy footfalls. A boy appeared on the porch his hair black and messy, his eyes were half lidded but reflected the colour of the sea, in his arms was the familiar figure of Grover, muttering in his sleep. He collapsed to the ground, muttering about his mother and began to slip into Morpheus's realm, this must be who Chiron was talking about.**

 **Annabeth and Chiron looked at him before Annabeth spoke up, "He's the one. He must be."**

"I don't like him," Whiskers muttered, he smelt the vague scent of himself, an impossible scent for anyone to smell, but the impossible was something he had become used to. This smell showed that he had been recently near Whiskers, but he hadn't been, nor had he been near Parrot, due to reasons of death and tree metamorphosis, nor could he have been near Bandit, this meant there was another.

 **"Silence, Annabeth," the centaur said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

 **Whiskers sighed before growing to the size of a border collie and grabbing him by the scruff of his jacket hoisted him into the big house, Annabeth grabbed his legs to help her foxy friend. She smirked at the look in his face, his eyes widened, before rolling back as he finally drifted off into dream-land, or more specifically, demi-god-dream-land, the more nightmare orientated cousin of regular dreamland.**

 **"** **So," Whiskers said after putting Percy in a bed, "he's the 'one' Annie? And here I was thinking you and Luke were-" THWACK "Annie, what was that for?" THWACK "Fine shutting up."**

 **"** **Good," Annabeth said, putting the rolled-up newspaper back down and hiding her blushing face from the fox. "He's got the same hair as Thalia," she said sadly, "and same facial structure, I didn't see his eyes, but they must be like hers." Looking over the boy.**

 **"** **Annie…" Whiskers said, "don't do this, you say that about every demi-god that makes it here, besides, Zeus isn't the only elder god, it could be one of his brother's children."**

"Hades never had that many children in the past and Poseidon… Zeus is the most likely he has had the highest amount. It's got to be." Annabeth said.

"Fine, believe what you want, but just don't be too disappointed if your wrong, for now I'll be going back to bed, you should too, don't want to come off as creepy, watching him sleep." He grinned, but before she could grab the newspaper he was gone, leaving a blushing Annabeth behind.

As he made his way to the den he saw a flash of silver, he turned and met the gaze of what could have passed as his twin, same fur, same eyes, same threatening growl, speaking of, the two foxes growled at each other in unison. They glared into the eyes of the other, anger present in their eyes, if you were to look closely enough, you would notice around the pupils of both their eyes looked like they were bleeding, becoming red. Both grew, until they were the size of full grown huskies, each looked about ready to pounce on the other.

"Hey!" A rough voice growled out, the two foxes turned to it, a burly girl stood there, spear in one hand and shield in the other. She glared at them, giving them the I'm-just-out-of-bed-and-don't-want-to-deal-with-any-of-your-shit look, the effect being ruined by her pyjamas and bed hair. "What have you been told about fighting?"

The second fox looked up and her and sighed, "if you don't get to fight it, I don't either."

"You're damn right, now why are we up, monsters?" She grinned maliciously.

"Not anymore." Whiskers said, "new kid, took out the Minotaur. He's out of it now, I'm not surprised, he was carrying his satyr and had blood down his shirt." The girl frowned before her eyes glinted.

"New kid, took out the Minotaur, hmm, kids got to be strong, must be worth the fight." Her grin came back, even more evil and scary looking, but was again ruined by the fact that her hair was sticking out randomly, instead of a terrifying demi-god, she looked more like a mad woman, who put their hand in an electrical socket.

"You talk big for someone wearing silk jammies, Clarisse." Whiskers grinned, "next thing you know they'll have hello kitty printed on them," the other fox looked amused as well.

Clarisse turned red and she glared at the fox, pointing her spear at him, "watch yourself mutt, you're lucky Chiron doesn't let me gut you."

"Gotta agree with him on this one," the other fox grunted, "I take it this is another little gift from our old pal Selina?" He sniggered as she blushed slightly.

"Shut up, Bandit!" She said, "least I don't live in a hole in the ground." She muttered.

"Clarisse, you insult me," Bandit said in mock sadness, "I might need to go talk to-"

"Don't say it." Clarisse growled, the fox smiled evilly.

"So, what got you up out of bed then, I doubt you smelt a large monster reaching the border like me, so what woke you?" Bandit asked.

"Nothing…" Clarisse said, at the look she was given she gave an exasperated sigh, "fine, I was going to your den, I saw you leaving and followed."

"Oh, anything in particular you need to talk about?" Bandit asked, he gave Whiskers a look basically telling him to leave or the camp would be one fox short. He complied and left, but not before giving the other fox a glare, his eyes unknowingly flashing red for a second, he then disappeared into the underbrush.

"So, what is it?" Bandit asked.

"Nothing important," he was about to speak again but she cut him off, "this new kid, tell my siblings that I have first dibs, they don't go near him unless I say so."

Bandit grinned foxily, "well, well, well, you work quickly, haven't even met him and you've already claimed him."

"You know what I mean," Clarisse grumbled, "you've been hanging around Selina too much."

"So, have you, you're wearing her pj's if I'm not mistaken, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you… followed your father's tastes." He grinned, "something to tell the class?"

"Shut up, these are comfy." She grumbled, "just tell my siblings, if I don't get the chance, or forget."

"Fine, so you are going back to the cabin?" He asked.

"I am now, if the new kids out, why?" She asked.

"I'm gonna spend the night." Bandit said, jumping on her shoulder, now small enough to fit in one of her hands.

"Oh, and you… damn, your right, I do spend too much time with Selina and her sisters, anyway, what if dad doesn't let you?"

"Why wouldn't he? He hasn't before?" She rolled her eyes.

"Fine, let's get going, before the harpies come." With that the two of them made their way to the cabin with a boar's head on the front and what looked like the… various other parts decorating the walls.

(With the jinchuuriki)

After recovering from seasickness/teleportation sickness (with the exception of Yagura) they had their captain (Yagura, obviously) explain what had happened. After a brief discussion, i.e. Yagura being yelled at for being clumsy, they had decided that they would try using the 'underwater hell ride' as Utakata called it, to get to camp Jupiter.

After they all looked over the console they found out that the boat had a limited distance it could go per trip, the little circles that showed up on the map were the locations they could go through to get to camp Jupiter as quick as possible. So, fifteen more trips through water-world to get to their destination, something neither B, nor Utakata were particularly happy about, they voiced these opinions rather vocally. Roshi unfortunately pointed out that using the boat would shorten their journey considerably, and they reluctantly agreed to use it.

They did get the others to agree to camp here, at least for that day and they did, Yagura, Fu and Hana staid in the boat, making use of the surprisingly large cabins. The others, went ashore as soon as they could, B and Utakata sprinting across the lake the moment they were capable, apparently, they were seasick, Roshi too wasn't fond of the constant swaying. Garra and Yugito weren't too fond of water, Garra grew up in the desert, and Yugito was basically raised by a cat made of fire.

So, they spent the night there, and the next, at the insistence of both B and Utakata, it was on the third day that Yagura got to test out her new toy again. This time the necessary precautions were taken care of, i.e. they closed the doors, Hana took one look at them and assured her siblings that they would be able to handle the pressure, Roshi agreed, with a great deal of reluctance.

So, they were off again, this time they took the opportunity to scout out the location they would be heading to beforehand, Lake St Clair, Detroit. From there they would head to Iowa, and then they would take a break, from what Hana had discovered about the tech going into the water teleporter, it would be able to make a jump every six to ten hours or so. The maximum distance was a bit weird, there was no actual distance given, but it said in the safety manual that there were dangers in going too far, something to do with the boat being crushed under the pressure. The dots labelled were the distances they could cross safely, or rather the recommended distances, there was about a fifty-fifty chance that they could safely double that distance but, despite Hana saying that it would be okay, they decided that the risk of being crushed like a tin can was a bit high. Fun fact, the map also called this mode of transport pressure-travel, not very creative, but pretty much sums it up.

So, they finally went with the plan and, with Yagura at the wheel and the others freaking out below deck, they left Locust Lake.

Fun fact, it's called pressure travel mostly because of the horrifying pressure put on the boat, the first time it was attempted, the poor cyclops in the sub crumpled like paper. The boat needed to be reinforced to the point where it could survive the vacuum of space whilst being crushed by the weight of billions of gallons of water, it could, in theory be capable of surviving blows from Typhoon, not that it would do any good, since the occupants would find themselves as a nice even coat on the newly painted red interior if it came to it.

As it turned out, the only reason they actually survived the first jump was because Hana closed the door before it happened. Yagura only survived because she was a daughter of Poseidon, they could handle any kind of pressure, be it the pressure of the ocean above them, different atmospheric pressures (not that they'd get much chance to test that with their trigger-happy uncle) and even peer pressure.

So, after putting Utakata and B to sleep (by going in the mindscape, they didn't kill them) they were ready to go. Yagura was at the wheel, the others went below deck and began praying to their respective parents that all would go well. Now Yagura didn't get much time to admire what it was like to use this mode of travel the first time because she was so shocked by the water entering the boat, but now that she got the chance she was amazed.

You know that feeling you get as a plane is taking off, where it feels like you're stomach, and possibly other vital organs were left behind on the ground? Well picture that but in reverse, the boat was bobbing about on the water then suddenly there was water out the window, to most of the occupants it felt like a demented express elevator to hell. To Yagura it felt like the most thrilling roller-coaster ride ever.

The window outside (which didn't look particularly reinforce, but was probably magic) showed schools of fish scattering at the sight of the boat, and a particularly spooked jellyfish who rippled for a moment before turning around. Then it got really dark, like they reached the bottom of the ocean, suddenly the boat came to a stop, and for a second they were still, before they went flying up, like a yoyo.

They breached the surface and bobbed about for a bit, a few seagulls squawked and shifted about disgruntled but then resumed their usual activities. Yagura opened the hatch and stood on the deck looking onto the city not too far from them, she breathed in the air and frowned at how polluted it was, she had been on this world for a while and still didn't like the pollution, in their old world there was little to no pollution, in fact most of the villages relied on their environment.

She stepped down and knocked on the hatch down into the depths of the ship, signalling the others could get out. They stumbled out of the boat, B and Utakata still unconscious but they were being carried by Hana and Roshi, Fu went into the mindscape and woke the two of them.

They all looked at the Detroit sky and Utakata sighed, "how long until we have to do that again?"

"About eight hours," Hana said, "the length of time it takes to recharge is the distance multiplied by-"

"It's too early for a physics lecture sis." Fu said, before her wings sprouted and she flew up a bit, "besides, we have a city to explore." She bobbed up and down in the air giddily, "come on!"

"Wait up, we need to park the boat." Yagura said, Fu flew closer to the ship and pouted at her.

"Come on, I can fly, I'll go to the shore and start exploring, you lot can catch up if you want, besides what's the worst that can happen?" She asked earnestly.

"No, you aren't going to go galivanting by yourself, we are trying to make it to San Francisco as soon as possible, we already got held up by these two being scared of the water. We aren't making a detour for you to go exploring Detroit." Fu said.

"Fine, we can all water-walk why don't we just put down the anchor here and walk to shore?" The insect themed jinchuuriki asked.

"No, not a chance." B said, stopping his infuriating rapping as he became very pale, "I read through some of the books at camp, big three kids don't do well in their uncle's realm's, I think the only reason me and Utakata are still alive is Yagura."

"Calm down," Yagura said, "dad won't drown you, besides we aren't doing it, because we're all going to stay on the ship and until we get to the nearest port, then we're going to re-supply, we mightn't have enough food to make dinner for all of us."

"I agree," Utakata said, though he looked a bit green.

"Fine, but we won't spend eight hours re-supplying, so that means I can go explore." Fu said.

"No, we have to stick together." Yagura said.

"I'm not so sure." Roshi said, "Chiron said that demi-gods attract monsters, big three kids more than others, since we've got all three of those, I'd guess our scent is pretty strong."

"We can handle any monster that comes at us." Garra said.

"That may be, but they will slow us down, besides, some of the monsters here could prove to be challenging, like the hydra we faced, besides it is unwise to tempt fate like that." Roshi said, "also, even if we can fight them off, what if they come to the boat? What if it's damaged, I don't think your dad will be too happy we broke his gift only a few days after receiving it. It is also our quickest mode of transport."

Yagura looked torn for a moment before responding, "fine, but we need to pick a rendezvous point, the docks."

"I don't think we do, we're the only beings with chakra in this world, right? So, it would be safe to assume that we are the only beings capable of detecting chakra, all one of us needs to do is flare our chakra and the rest will come." Yugito said.

"Fine, but we aren't all going alone, partner up." Yagura said.

"Why? We can all handle ourselves." Fu asked.

"It's not for that, I know some of us," she glared at Fu and B, "are easily distracted, this is for them."

"Fair enough, but what are the groups and who's going shopping?"

"Well, someone needs to babysit B and Fu," Yagura said, at their indignant sounds in denial she continued, "so how about Garra and B, Fu and Yugito, Utakata and me and Hana and Roshi." They all agreed.

"Good, now let's go!" Fu said grabbing Yugito by her armpits, surprising her, and taking off in the general direction of the city, Garra sighed, before looking to B, he then commanded his sand to lift the two of them and take off in the same direction as their sisters. The other four remained, staring at their retreating forms before Yagura started the boat up and Utakata nearly threw up over the side, Roshi nearly joining him.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, Whiskers was searching for Annabeth. He'd already searched at the Athena cabin, the amphitheatre and the forest, Chiron said she might be at the big house, so that is where the fox was going.

"Annie!" He called out, his only response was the god Dionysus waking up from his midday nap, his eyes looked so bloodshot they looked naturally red. He scowled at him and then went right back to sleep, with his feet up.

He entered the big house and finally found her, she was sitting at the bedside of the boy who killed the minotaur. He jumped and landed in her lap, knocking her out of what the other campers referred to as ' _the_ thinking face.'

"Did he wake up yet?" He asked, looking up into her eyes.

"Yes, he looked about, saw Argus, then he just fell back to sleep." Annabeth said, "also, don't do that, you scared me."

"Oh, the great daughter of Athena scared by little ol' me." He said, smirking at her, "come on Annie, you've got more to do than watch him sleeping, you have to take a history lesson in twenty minutes. Get ready, he won't wake up anytime soon."

As if simply to prove the fox wrong, the boy in the bed moved, groaning as he regained consciousness, Annabeth stared at him, before smirking at Whiskers.

"See, now we'll find out what's going on." Annabeth said, "he's go to know."

The fox sighed gazing at the demi-god who was waking, "don't get your hopes up Annie."

Percy's eyes shot open and the two of them were greeted with sea green orbs blinking away the sleep. He finally focused on Annabeth and her smirk widened. The boy looked at her confusion he then looked at the fox and managed to choke out a, "What?"

Annabeth looked around, making sure that Argus wasn't around to overhear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"I'm sorry," Percy mumbled, his eyes fighting off the sleep, "I don't…"

Somebody knocked on the door, and Annabeth force fed him some ambrosia quickly filled his mouth and making the poor boy resemble a chipmunk as he drifted off again.

"Wow, what riveting a riveting conversationalist this one is." Whiskers said sarcastically, "be sure to write that down, it might be a clue."

Annabeth just sighed and turned to her fox, "I just… what if he's the one?"

"Annie, I think you should stop waiting for your knight in shining armour, because that's what you're doing, you know what that makes you? The damsel. You aren't the damsel, you are one of the strongest people I know. Your time will come, and I know that Chiron said you had to wait for some hero, be the hero of your own story." Whiskers said.

"Whiskers… you know sometimes I feel like you're too smart." She grinned at him. "So, if I'm the 'damsel' and he's my 'dashing hero in shining armour' then does that mean you're the dragon keeping me captive."

"Oh yes, beware brave knight, I, the fierce dragon shall guard the princess. Tremble before my terrifying might. ROAR." The two of them laughed.

"Oh, so I'm a princess now?" Annabeth said, picking up the fox and setting him on her shoulder. "I think I like that, you all shall bow before the magnificent princess Annabeth."

"Hmm." Whiskers hummed, then he grew a feral grin, "well, if you are the princess then I guess you should look the part."

Annabeth looked warily at the fox, "what are you thinking?"

"Nothing, I'm just wondering what kind of dress you're going to wake up in tomorrow, better get to the Aphrodite cabin." He then launched himself off her shoulder and sprinted away before she comprehended what he said, since she was a child of Athena he had about a hundredth of a second to do so.

Just as the end of his bushy tail disappeared past the door she was after him, "Whiskers, don't you dare! Get back here!" She saw him running in the direction of the pink cabin that smelt of perfume and chocolate, according to Whiskers, before she could catch him he had jumped into the arms of Selina. She saw him whisper something into her ear and the usually sensible daughter of Aphrodite gained a grin not dissimilar to those in the Hermes cabin.

Before she could stop their nefarious plan, Chiron passed her, telling her she was going to be late to her class. Whiskers spared her a glace and grinned evilly, and threw his head back to laugh at her defeated look, causing any camper in the vicinity to skirt around him, or completely bolt in the opposite direction in the case of three daughters of Aphrodite who remembered hearing that laugh the day before the mysteriously woke up with bright green skin.

Two days later

After the day that we do not speak about because it did not happen as Annabeth commanded, since no one was stupid enough to go against the irate daughter of Athena, not even Whiskers, apparently the seventh of June mysteriously disappeared from any record in camp half-blood. On a completely unrelated note, if one were to look at the camp fire one may find the torn remains of a horrifyingly pink dress with curls and a small tiara there would be no connection whatsoever. On another completely unrelated note the Aphrodite cabin, who had been undecided, were now firmly on the Ares cabin side in capture the flag, and now held a grudge against the Athena cabin.

It was on this morning that Percy Jackson recovered from his short coma, as he emerged onto the porch he was greeted with a familiar centaur in a wheelchair, a distressingly sober god and a blonde demi-god. They were playing pinochle, a game that the god was currently losing, the god of party's losing a card game to his niece and an old horse. Dionysus, the aforementioned god scowled at his diet coke, as if it were the reason for all of his problems as he lost another hand.

He then took a sip, wishing he could take a swig from the Chardonnay he'd been saving since Zeus had first punished him like this. He sighed before wiping his mouth on his leopard skin jacket and getting ready to deal with the new brat that was coming.

"Well, look who's up." Whiskers said from his place in Annabeth's arms, he was currently about the same size as a cat and was enjoying being pet, "looks like 'the one', huh Annie." He was gently swat for this and Annabeth stopped petting him instead tossing him to the floor, "oh, come on, I was comfy." He then jumped up to her shoulder and got comfy, something she didn't even bother him about as Percy had just sat down.

She was concentrating on him fully, staring at him like an owl would a mouse, or how Whiskers looked at rabbits, poor rabbits.

"Annabeth?" Chiron called. She came forward and Chiron introduced the two. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."

Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron." Percy looked at the fox on her shoulder in confusion, like he was wondering if Annabeth didn't know summer wasn't the time for scarfs. Annabeth's gaze drifted over him, before stopping at the minotaur horn in his hands, "You drool when you sleep." She said simply before turning to leave.

She then flung the Whiskers to the ground where it landed with a grunt, it looked at her, then at Percy who suddenly had a look of recognition. The boy looked like he was about to say something about him, but, "must you do that," Whiskers said, eyeing Annabeth irritably, like she had woken him from a long nap.

"Sorry," she, a slight grin on her face, "don't want you getting too lazy."

Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her, Whiskers followed, but not before narrowing his eyes at Percy, somehow making the boy more scared of the foot-tall fox than the eight-foot bull man he fought a few days previous.

"He recognised you," Annabeth said as she slowed down, turning her head to Whiskers, in the universal sign for 'explain'.

"No, I don't think he did, he seemed shocked that I could speak, so we hadn't been formally introduced." Whiskers said, trying to get her off that train of thought, and failing, getting a daughter of Athena off a particular thought was… actually quite right derailing an actually train, immensely difficult, painful and shouldn't be attempted without several tons of dynamite.

"No, he recognised you, when he saw you he seemed confused, like he knew you, he only seemed shocked when you started speaking." Annabeth said.

"Well, it's not every day one sees a talking fox." Whiskers said.

"Yeah, it's also not every day one sees a fox that is pure silver, can stick to walls and can change size." Annabeth said, her accusing gaze glaring into him.

"Maybe he saw me on a hunt, or maybe he saw Bandit." Whiskers lied, in truth he knew why the boy seemed to recognise him, he had been close to him, well, not him, another him. Whiskers was actually one of several foxes, who were all identical, so far, the number was three, Whiskers, Bandit and Parrot. All of them hated each other, for reasons they couldn't actually explain, other than they weren't natural, Annabeth knew that they hated each other but didn't understand why, she didn't understand the urge-

"Maybe," Annabeth said, interrupting Whiskers train of thought, they were walking past the cabins, Annabeth was going to grab a book from her cabin, as they passed the other campers were wary of them. Annabeth had the Athens gleam in her eye that screamed danger and Whiskers, well, he always wore a foxy grin on his face, except when he was thinking (plotting), and right now he wasn't smiling.

They soon found themselves in the Athena cabin, the mess that made up the workshop greeting them, the start of the summer always found the cabin at its worst, as if all the ideas the children of wisdom had were bottled up over the school year and saved for now. The floor was littered with physics and maths textbooks, all in impeccable condition, how they weren't dog eared was a mystery, maybe Athena blessed all of the books that entered her cabin to never be damaged. The desks were cluttered with designs, complicated physics equations, and several passed out Athena campers, they all pulled an all-nighter in a group project. Even demi-gods need their sleep.

Annabeth skirted around all the piles of books, working drawings concepts and full-scale models of various landmarks until she came to her pile, though calling it that wouldn't do it justice. It was a stack of books nearly the same height as her, piled in such a structurally sound way that it would take an earthquake to knock it over, she also somehow made it so that she could take out any book without disrupting the pile, possibly breaking all the currently known laws of physics.

After she grabbed her book, she looked over some of the designs her siblings had done with a critical eye, occasionally commenting to the currently conscious siblings about how they could improve. She then picked Whiskers up and set him on her shoulder and made her way to the Hermes cabin, where the new kid would be eventually, or to talk to Luke.

She then sat down in front of the messenger gods cabin and started reading, Whiskers grew to the size of a husky and sat beside her, she absent-mind-idly scratched him behind the ears. Eventually the fox dozed off, they sat like this until a voice broke Annabeth out of her reading, "oh, look," Chiron said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."

Annabeth looked up to see the trainer of heroes making his way towards them, the boy, Percy, following behind. When they reached her, she looked Percy over critically, and Whiskers woke up as she stopped scratching him, he looked up and his gaze fell to Percy, nose twitching slightly.

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cabin eleven," Chiron addressed the new camper, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home." Before he left, he looked into the cabin nodding to a few of the campers, "well, then, good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."

He galloped away toward the archery range.

Percy stood in the doorway, looking at the kids that were now staring, sizing him up. Just like any other school kid would eye up the new kid, something he was very familiar with.

"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."

As he entered the cabin he tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of himself causing some snickers from the campers, but none of them spoke.

Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven."

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.

Percy looked very confused, but Annabeth spoke up for him, "Undetermined."

Groans flooded the cabin and Luke made his way to the front, "now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."

"This is Luke," Annabeth squeaked and Whiskers sniggered several of the Hermes kids joined him, they all shared a look, and Annabeth just started blushing. When she saw the looks she was getting, her expression hardened again, the snickers turned into awkward coughs, all except Whiskers, who's sniggers grew into full laughter at her scathing look. "He's your counsellor, for now." She ground out, her attention solely fixed on the fox, ignoring Percy's confused look.

"For now?" He asked.

"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently, just like he did to all the other poor demi-gods who were undetermined. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travellers."

"And thieves," came a voice from behind them, Percy turned to find the fox's attention was now on all of the children smirking in the cabin.

"Yeah," one of the campers said with a grin, "definitely thieves." The camper beside him, who looked to be his twin said, both having matching grins.

"Don't trust them with your things." The fox continued, "keep an eye on everything." It advised.

"Aww, is Whiskers afraid of little old us?" One of the twins said with sarcasm.

"No," the fox seemed to get a dangerous gleam in his eye and Percy saw the twins shiver slightly, "but I wonder if you are afraid of me."

They shared a look before defiantly turning to the fox and shaking their heads with bravado, "No."

"Well than, if you want to prove that," the fox said, edging towards them like they were helpless pray, "then say it." They looked trapped, everyone else gained looks ranging between slight confusion, from the younger looking children, and complete horror, from the other, older demi-gods. Luke looked very uneasy, Annabeth however smirked slightly, revenge from the teasing they gave her about the day that did not happen.

"Or are you going to chicken out after last time." The fox said, grinning, looking like he'd caught his prey, from the defiance in the two brother's eyes, he had.

"Fine then." One of the brothers said, the campers were beginning to look for cover. The two of them looked at each other and grinned, "prank war." They said in unison.

The foxes grin got wider, the grins on the brothers faces dropped slightly, Luke just sighed and gave them a look that said, 'what have you done?' before shaking his head, looking at them sadly.

"Well then, I've been meaning to practice some of my newer pranks on someone, and now that I have the perfect victims…err…test subjects. Yeah…test subjects." The fox said, Annabeth sniggered and Luke just turned back to Percy, directing him to where he would sleep.

Percy looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given him. He had nothing to put there to mark it as his own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. He thought about setting that down, but then remembered the fox's words.

"How long will I be here?" Percy asked.

"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."

"How long will that take?"

The campers, who hadn't fled all laughed.

"Come on," Annabeth told him. "I'll show you the volleyball court."

"I've already seen it."

"Come on." She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him outside, Whiskers following, after giving one more glance to the now trembling children of Hermes. When they were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."

To the other side of her the fox sniggered, "oh, what do I tell Luke?" Annabeth just ignored him.

"What's your problem?" Percy asked, anger now lacing his voice. "All I know is, I killed some bull guy-"

"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth exclaimed. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

"To get killed?"

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"

"Annie," the fox interrupted sternly, "you train to survive, not to show off, you need to stop thinking like that, it'll get you hurt."

"…Whiskers, I…" Annabeth looked speechless, and uncomfortable, it was obvious she wasn't often in this position.

"Look, Annie, you're safe here, that's what matters, Percy's right, you're looking for a chance to get killed, and I can't let that happen." Whiskers said, looking up at her.

"It… just forget about it." She said to the fox, he looked about ready to do anything but let it go, but before he could say anything else Percy interrupted.

"Wait, if the thing I fought really was _the_ Minotaur, the same one in the stories..."

"Yes." Annabeth said, eyeing Whiskers who had gone silent now.

"Then there's only one."

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a gazillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So…"

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."

"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them Arche types. Eventually, they re-form."

Whiskers saw the residual confusion from Annabeth's Athena explanation, so he tried to explain it in words he could understand, "think of it like… do you read comics?" Percy nodded and muttered 'sometimes', "well, you know Doomsday, they're like him, if you kill them they come back, but unlike Doomsday they don't become invulnerable to the thing that killed them, they can sometimes get smarter after they die and learn their lesson, but they are still just as strong as they were when they were killed. Understand?"

Percy nodded, but then seemed to ponder it for a moment. "So, if, say I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"

"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there, reforming. You just made her very, very mad."

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

"You talk in your sleep."

Whiskers sniggered again and muttered something that sounded like, "creepy stalker," but Annabeth's glare shut him up.

"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her, and Whiskers wrapped his tail around her arm to comfort her, she smiled at him before looking back to Percy, "you shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" Percy whined. "Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

He pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or... your parent."

She stared, waiting for him to get it, Whiskers rolled his eyes, silently wondering how long it would take for him to get it.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," he said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to." He looked down sadly, and Annabeth realised maybe she was being too harsh with him, Whiskers simply watched.

"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead. I never knew him."

Annabeth and Whiskers both sighed, all of them were like this, the two of them had been here for many years and one thing they realised was that all of the campers came here saying the same things.

"Your father's not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him?"

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say-"

"Because I know _you._ You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about me."

"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How-"

"Dyslexic, ADHD?" Whiskers asked.

Percy tried to swallow his embarrassment but still blushed and shuffled awkwardly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battle field reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course, the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

"You sound like...you went through the same thing?"

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar?"

"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."

Percy looked like he was about to collapse, the two of them were ready for it, a few kids had gone into shock like this before, fortunately, the newly discovered demi-god was distracted by a new arrival.

"Well! A newbie!" Clarisse came over, Bandit in tow, the fox's muzzle was caked in dried blood, but other than that, he looked exactly like Whiskers, they were even at the same size, at husky level, they both favoured this form for simply walking about.

"Whiskers." Bandit greeted, his voice coming out a harsher growl than the other fox, like he practiced in front of a mirror to get the perfect mix between a growl and disgust.

"Bandit," Whiskers said, though his voice was calmer he shifted a bit, ready for a fight, heckles raised and generally looking more intimidating.

The two of them looked ready to pounce on each other, Clarisse subtly stood in front of Bandit almost protectively, Annabeth did the same, like they didn't want either of them to start fighting. Though Clarisse didn't seem so happy about it as she sneered at the other fox.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So, I can run you through with-it Friday night."

 _''Erre es korakas!"_ Annabeth said, all the demi-gods present understanding it as Greek for 'Go to the crows!'

"You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched, like she wasn't so sure.

She turned toward Percy. "Who's this little runt?"

"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

Percy blinked. "Like...the war god?" Instinctively, Whiskers knew he was going to do something stupid.

Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," he said, recovering his wits. "It explains the bad smell."

Clarisse growled, the fox beside her joined in, his voice sounding much deeper and more menacing than the other fox he'd seen, of course the blood dripping down his maw helped with the intimidation factor. Clarisse then sneered, "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."

"Percy."

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it, wise girl."

Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, Percy gained a serious look, he had done this little dance before, he was the new kid, so he had his own rep to make.

He handed Annabeth the minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but, Clarisse had him by the neck and was dragging him towards the bathroom.

He was kicking and punching, but Clarisse had hands like iron and a grip of steel.

She dragged him into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. Clarisse's friends were all laughing, her fox definitely sounded much more menacing than the one Annabeth had. Percy was trying to find the strength he'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.

"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed him toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."

Her friends snickered. The fox laughed too, sounding like a mix between a chainsaw and a dog barking. Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers, Whiskers sitting on her shoulder, at the size of a kit, shaking his head in irritation.

Clarisse bent Percy over on his knees and started pushing his head toward the toilet bowl. Then something happened. Percy seemed to stop and stared at the water with a glare that seemed to scare the water if what happened next was any indication.

The plumbing rumbled, the pipes shuddered. Clarisse looked confused for a second and slackened her hold on him, before something completely new happened, water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over Percy, and a split second later he was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind him.

Percy turned just in time to see water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.

She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her. Her fox yipped worriedly, before turning to glare at the cause of the situation.

Then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away. The fox flew out first and hit the ground hard, the others landing on him as he yipped in pain.

Whiskers shouted out 'abandon ship' and jumped out of the bathroom before any of the water hit him, leaving Annabeth to be hit with the full force of all the dirty toilet water on her own.

As soon as they were out the door, Percy relaxed, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started. The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth was soaked, and annoyed looking, turning her glare between Whiskers and Percy. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place.

Percy looked down and realized he was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around him. There wasn't one drop of water on his clothes. Nothing.

Percy stood up shakily.

Annabeth said, "How did you..."

"I don't know."

They walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping, and she smelled like sewage. Bandit's fur was soaked and dripping down, making him look like a wet carpet.

Clarisse glared at him and screamed out, "you are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."

Percy couldn't stop himself when he said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."

Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet. The fox though, stood there and growled at him, it looked ready to pounce on the young demi-god.

"Your dead." He announced, his voice sounded calmer than earlier, exactly the same as Whiskers, a bit throatier but the same voice. Percy was confused as to how it made such different sounds earlier, but he never got to question it. The fox was about to pounce, and Percy was slightly afraid of the small creature, he wasn't sure why, but it seemed to give off an aura of strength.

Suddenly Annabeth stepped in between the two of them, blocking his aim right at Percy's unprotected throat.

"Calm down, no one was hurt." She said, trying to placate the fox, "just go with Clarisse, back to her cabin," the fox growled and seemed to contemplate pouncing on her and going at Percy, a growl from another direction changed its mind. Annabeth's fox was to the right, now about the size of an adult great Dane, it glared at the other fox, as if daring it to do what it was going to do, it growled once more before backing down. It gave one more look at Percy before stalking off in the direction of cabin five.

Whiskers looked back at Percy, suddenly in the form of a normal fox, he looked up at him and snorted, "well, that is one hell of an introduction you gave them, but it wasn't wise getting those two mad at you, so be careful."

Annabeth turned and glared at Whiskers for a moment, whether for abandoning her to get soaked, or because he and Percy were the only dry ones was unknown. She then turned her glare to Percy, seemingly torn between curiosity, anger and humiliation, as a small plan that would allow her to get her revenge, and placate Clarisse formed in her mind, yes.

"What?" Percy demanded, taking her out of the vengeance state of mind. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," She said smirking while on the inside an evil grin spread across her imaginary face, "That I want you on my team for capture the flag."

(With the jinchuuriki)

Detroit was a nice change of pace. Before their time on earth they had never been to a city before, and even now they preferred to stay far away from civilisation. The chance to explore the city was too much for Fu, and thus they were all looking around the city. The skyscrapers always amazed them, even after all the time they spent on earth, these huge buildings that reached into the sky, taller than any building in the elemental nations. Even Ame, which they had seen some of through their mutual enemy, didn't have buildings this big.

So, Fu decided to aim higher.

The jinchuuriki was currently hovering roughly fifty feet from the tallest building, looking down on the city. She would have stayed there transfixed for a while, simply admiring the sheer size of the buildings, if not for the hissing noise and the sharp pain in her shoulder.

Yugito did not share her sisters interest in the view, hence why she was now scrambling for a better grip on her only source of flight. This involved digging her rather sharp nails into the bug jinchuuriki and hissing like a cat that didn't want to be lifted. This cat did not want to be lifted but that was currently preferable to the distant ground that seemed to be getting even more distant as she tried not to look.

Dammit, Fu was flying higher.

"Fu, land!" Yugito yelled.

"Why, it's nice up here. Maybe I should go see if dads busy." She looked at the sun, not even bothering to squint, her eyes being fully capable of looking at her dad's car without going blind, and damn was it a nice car. Yeah, she could see him waving at her. "Yeah, let's go visit dad."

"You said you wanted to explore the city." Yugito yelled almost pleadingly before shutting her eyes. Maybe if she pretended it wasn't there the distance between her and the ground would suddenly shorten to a tolerable level.

"Yeah, but dad looks like he wants to talk." Fu said, flying even higher.

"Fu, if you don't put me down this instant-" Yugito didn't get to finish her threat as her sister gave into her demands immediately.

When she wanted the ground to be closer she didn't mean for it to be coming towards her so violently. She then did something she was very against doing, she closed her eyes and she screamed.

After about five minutes or so and having not become a Yugito shaped patch of red paint on the ground she opened her eyes. She was in the back of a golden Maserati Spyder. She looked around and found her sister plugging her ears along with a blonde man with a golden tan, who was doing exactly as Fu was.

When the two of them finally realised she was not screaming and was now staring at them in confusion they both, in unison, unplugged their ears and turned to her. The man then turned to Fu a confused look on his face.

"I thought she would never stop." He said before grinning, his teeth sparkling in the… wait where was the sun? It wasn't above them but there was still sunlight. Then it clicked.

"Apollo." The god in question grinned even brighter, literally, he glowed in golden light and seemed to give off his own heat.

"Yup. You must be Yugito, I don't think we had the pleasure. Bonjour mon, chierie." He grabbed her hand and before she could process it, or stop him, he kissed it. He then sat back and winked at her, and she blushed lightly.

"Stop flirting!" Fu said, "seriously, your daughter comes in for a visit and the first thing you do is flirt with her sister."

"O' calm down, flirting never hurt anyone, well, except anyone who met Arty, but they deserved it, also they weren't as awesome as me." He then grinned, "speaking of, why did you decide to pop in, not that I'm against it, dads to busy brooding to care about enforcing the rules these days, so we can talk in peace."

"I just came to say hi," then she looked confused, "what rules?"

"Ancient laws, not fun at all, but dads been busy trying to find someone to blame for losing his boom stick, so, while the cats away, the mice will play." He grinned again, "speaking of," he turned to Yugito, "what's up with this cat, I thought they all landed on their feet?" Fu chuckled and Yugito blushed.

"Don't know, she's here to keep an eye on me, but with her eyes closed like that she wasn't doing such a good job." They chuckled in sync.

"Oh, shut up." Yugito muttered, turning away from the duo, mad at Fu, but then it hit her, she would get the chance to talk to her dad, and Yugito would do nothing to risk that. So, the demon cat holder decided to stay quiet and let the duo enjoy their time together. She turned away and decided to try to fight her rather sporadic fear of heights by enjoying the view and living every cats dream, basking in the sun.

"Well Fu, what have you been doing recently?" The god asked his daughter.

"Not much, now that we're all finally together again-" "You're welcome." "-we've been trying to find Naruto."

"Oh, yeah, sis's kid." He looked annoyed for a moment, something that Fu would normally chalk up to a trick of the light, but he was the light, and he wasn't playing a trick.

Fu became slightly guarded, "do you not like Naruto?"

"What? No, haven't even met the kid yet, he's my nephew," he pondered for a moment, "your cousin, and sis loves him, a lot. I've never seen her like this before. It's strange, I just hope you find him soon, any clues by the way, I might be able to calm sis down if I can tell her something positive about his situation."

"You're the god of prophecies, you can see the future, surely you know." Fu said.

He grinned slightly, "it's nice to know you think so highly of your papa, but I'm afraid bad things come when you try to read too much into prophecies. The future is best kept secret."

"Fine, but yeah, we have something, he got split into nine foxes, silver to be exact, they're what we're looking for."

"Good to know, I'll keep an eye out, and I'll tell Arty."

"Any advice, god of prophets and all that?"

He pondered for a moment, "I see an awful lot, but its vague." He chuckled, "difficult to see, always in motion is the future. You're heading in the right direction though, but it will take time. By the end of the summer you'll know where at least one fox is, of that I'm sure, the rest is up to you though."

"Thanks," she smiled, they would find him, "that's good to hear, thank you, oh god the sun."

"Well, it's good to see that you recognise my awesomeness, might even have inherited some." Apollo chuckled again, "so, where are you headed anyway?"

"Camp Jupiter." Fu said.

Apollo flickered like a lightbulb, but instead of going dimmer it was like he was changing colour, but not? Like he was changing the bulb itself. It was strange, for a moment he was Apollo but then he was different but the same, he looked the same but he just… It was like a feeling that Fu and Yugito both felt. He was different. Then he was back to normal.

"Sorry about that," he said, "I don't suppose you could not say the 'R' word or anything about them."

"Oh, sure." Fu looked confused. "What was that about?"

"Oh, just some multiple personality issues, nothing to worry about." He replied.

"Okay, so how's it going… dad?" Fu said, stumbling slightly at the end.

"Good, been a bit of a pain with dad complaining all the time, but it has its upsides, wouldn't be talking to you if there weren't. I can't exactly visit, but since you came to me, well, he hasn't been keeping as much of an eye on me as usual." It appeared that was about as much as he could talk about and an awkward silence came, neither father or daughter being able to break it. Fortunately, they didn't have to.

"What were you saying before?" Yugito spoke up, "about the ancient laws."

"Yeah, they're a right pain," he grimaced lightly, "but they're needed."

"But what are they?" Yugito asked.

"They're rules, us gods got to follow them, dad enforced them for us, and we normally stick to them. They are really long and complicated, but the gist of it is that we can't raise our kids, we can't go all divine intervention if any of our kids get hurt and we can't help them directly." He looked over the side of his car, from here you could see quite a bit, the majority of north America in fact.

"But why?" Fu asked, looking at her father emotionlessly, trying not to show the hurt she was feeling from his words.

He sighed, absentmindedly summoning a ukulele and strumming it, random chords seemed to envelope them, sounding like the most beautiful sounds either of them had ever heard, they brought up memories, memories of their family, of happiness, of sadness, every emotion that existed was portrayed in the random strumming's of the god of music, "there are many reasons, too many to tell you, too many for you to understand."

He hummed as he hit a chord, a single note resonated, the only thing breaking the silence, he stared out into space and then looked down at the instrument with a sigh. "One of them is that… we're gods." He strummed another note, "immortal," his voice was soothing but sad, like a lullaby, "we live forever, our children…" he strummed another chord, he didn't need to finish his sentence, the sadness in that one chord said it all. "That was part of the reason, distance ourselves, make sure we don't feel anything, it doesn't work though." The two girls were silent, the only sound being the instrument in Apollo's hand, "and then there's the agreement."

The sun god stood up suddenly, a bright grin coming to his face, "well, that's enough of that."

He examined the ukulele in his hands, it was ivory, with golden highlights of course, the strings seemed to be made of liquid gold and the pegs were ivory. The fret board was also ivory, gold framing it.

"Now, sweetie, tell me, what do you play?" He asked.

"Play?" Fu asked.

"Yes, are you a violinist? Celloist?" He looked her up and down, before humming, "no." He snapped his fingers, "piano! Yes, you would make an excellent pianist." He grinned.

"Umm, actually, I don't play anything." Fu admitted, knowing he was the god of truth and would be able to tell if she lied, she felt ashamed, after hearing all that he could do with random chords and a ukulele she knew she would disappoint him. She failed to look him in the eye, how could she face him, he was the god of music and she, his daughter, couldn't play anything.

"Really?" He asked, and she flinched, looking at her hands, "that's great!" He said, and she found herself staring at him in confusion. "Means I get to be the one to teach you."

"Wha-what?" Fu stumbled.

"Yup, now, what will it be, hmm, nice strong fingers, long too, perfect for the piano, or a stringed instrument. Flute? No…" He then looked down at the ukulele in his hands and smiled. "Perfect."

He handed her the instrument and she took it with slightly shaky hands, what if she did badly, what if she didn't live up to his expectations.

"Okay, now relax, and play a chord, this is C" he moved her fingers into the correct places for a C minor, "now strum it." She did so, and the note played, "good, good. Now G…" He eventually taught her the chords needed for a simple song and told her what to do.

"Now put it all together." He said, and she began to play, it was slow, and she made a few mistakes but in the end, she played the song. "Great going, you can now play 'can't help falling in love with you', great song, sounds surprisingly good on the ukulele."

"Thanks." Fu said quietly, "for everything."

"No problem." Apollo looked over the edge of the car, "I think you two should get going, the others will be worrying about you now."

"Yeah…" Fu trailed off, "umm, see ya… dad." She then leapt into a hug.

"Yeah, bye kiddo." Apollo said, gently patting her back. She went to hand the Ukulele to him, but he shook his head, "it's yours, you need to practice, and the price of instruments, its mad." He smiled.

"Thanks." Fu said, cradling the instrument like a child.

"Thank you, Apollo," Yugito said, "now, could you land somewhere near our boat and we'll get out of your hair."

The god grinned, "why would I need to land," he took the wheel and span it several times, the car flipped until it was upside down, the two jinchuuriki fell out Yugito screaming, neither getting the chance to stick with chakra, "remember, cats always land on their feet!" He shouted out to the blonde.


	5. Chapter 5

Whiskers left the two human demi-gods to their own devices for many reasons, chief among those was his safety from Annabeth's wrath. Word of the bathroom incident mysteriously spread even faster than normal demi-god gossip, this coincidently happened after Whiskers made his way past the Aphrodite cabin. The fox sniggered to himself as he made his way to his den, if he had an angry daughter of Athena he would have to go where he knew she knew he would go, therefore to obvious to check first, to trick her into looking in the more obscure of his hangouts. It wouldn't keep her away forever, but it would slow her down for the time being, outsmarting a daughter of Athena was basically impossible, if she was after him, there was no way he could escape, but this precious time now would be nice.

He knew she would continue giving Percy the tour, which would take up to dinner if he was lucky and Percy asked lots of stupid questions. Since he had talked to the boy for more than five minutes it was a given that he had that excess time, so for now he could relax.

CHIRP

Or not.

Just before the fox could enter his den he heard a baby bird, a rather noisy one, chirping, by the sound of it, it was only newly hatched. Normally Whiskers wouldn't be bothered by animal noises, hell he was usually responsible for the noise in some way, but the fox had a soft spot for baby animals. He never ate baby animals of any species, and he never attacked pregnant animals, or animals with new-borns, it just seemed wrong.

So, he tried to find the root of the problem, he followed the sounds until he came to a tree, at its base was the wrecked remains of a nest. The corpse of a beautiful snowy white owl lay next to it, as well as a few… baby owls, none of them were moving, the blood was only a few hours old, still fresh, looks like it was a territorial dispute, the kids got caught in the crossfire, Whiskers looked at the corpses sadly.

Wait, if all of them were dead, what was making the noise?

CHIRP

In the branches, a small blotch of grey could be seen amongst the sea of browns and greens, Whiskers jumped up to the branch the blob was on and found a small chick. It didn't look very old, but it was shivering, it had been alone too long, not yet old enough to fly, let alone look after itself.

Whiskers silently wrapped his tail around the small bird, trying not to startle it, which didn't work, bright intelligent blue eyes stared back at him, fear quickly forming. Whiskers didn't move, not entirely sure what to do, so he simply tried to convey the message of friendly in his body language, something that was quite difficult. The owl stared at him for a minute before chirping, Whiskers took that as 'help me' so he lifted the owl in his tail, wrapping it around the poor creature and giving it warmth.

The little owl dozed off, and Whiskers climbed down the tree, being sure not to disturb his passenger, he then made his way back to his den. He then made a makeshift nest for the small owl in one corner and placed the creature in it, he then sorted through his small food supply, tearing some of the leftover rabbit into smaller strips to feed the owl. Next on the agenda was water, he remembered the gift Annabeth had given him two Christmases ago, a dog bowl with Whiskers inscribed in ancient Greek, he never used it, and Annabeth had only got it as a joke, but now it could be used for the owl.

So, he waited, patiently for his new friend to wake up, and, after a few hours the owl awoke, it squawked uncertainly for a while before looking up and seeing the fox, it then tilted its head. Whiskers padded over and placed some of the meat down in front of the young chick, who ate the small chunks of rabbit eagerly.

Whiskers smiled at the chick for a moment before deciding. "Annie will like you," the bird chirped lightly, "yeah, I think you'll like her too, I hope you can keep her company when I can't." He said sadly, the bird looked him right in the eye and chirped happily, "yeah, you'll take care of her."

Whiskers left the owl to sleep as soon as he smelt the food wafting in to his den, he decided that Annabeth was suitably calm. Maybe he could take some of the food the Athena campers gave him, he didn't need it, but maybe some of it would be better for the little owl he now shared a den with.

As he passed into the pavilion, he noticed everyone was already sitting down, a few dryads drifted about giving out food to some campers, but for now there was little chance of him getting trampled. One of the dryads pet him as he passed, and he licked her hand, causing her to giggle. The dryads seemed to love him, in fact, most nature spirits seemed to like him, except some jealous satyrs who didn't like anyone 'stealing' the dryad's attention.

It made him wonder what exactly he was, not for the first time. By Greek mythological standards, he wasn't particularly strange, a fox that can walk on walls and grow or shrink when he wants, not exactly normal by mortal standards, but nothing compared to the goat men, walking trees and half men half horses that are normal by camps standards. Still, maybe he was a nature spirit, not like the dryads, he wasn't tied down to anywhere in particular, more like a satyr.

Maybe that was why Artemis was so interested in him, enough to give him her blessing, but that still raised several questions: Why were there clones of him? Was he the clone? If so who was the original? And why are they here, what is their purpose? The question every sentient creature eventually faced, why am I here?

He would probably find out eventually, but living with Annabeth got him to ask questions more. For now, he would deal with his most pressing concern: food. For both him and his new-found companion. So, he looked at table six, finding Annabeth chatting with her siblings, she looked at him and gestured him over. She didn't look particularly annoyed at him, well, it wasn't exactly his fault, so he guessed she wasn't blaming him, she didn't usually hold grudges for long.

As he made his way over to the Athena table he noticed Percy sitting on the edge of the Hermes table, looking uncomfortable. He felt sorry for Percy, and Luke, and everyone else in cabin eleven, hopefully Percy would be claimed soon, both to give cabin eleven some room, and to help Percy. Poor kid looked like he needed to get a break, he just lost his mom, found out that his dad was alive and found out that there is a secret society of demi-gods living in long island. That would give anyone a hard time.

The fox made his way over to Annabeth, hoping she would feed him, or at least wouldn't stop her siblings from doing so. He reached the table dedicated to the children of wisdom and sat on his haunches at the end of the table. Annabeth eyed him for a minute before gesturing him to sit in her lap. Well she defiantly wasn't angry then, or she just wanted to hit him over the head, either way her lap was comfortably warm, and he liked dozing on warm places like a ca- no, no he was not a cat, he was a fox. Foxes are better.

He jumped into her lap, startling one of the newest child of Athena, Malcolm, who jumped almost as high as the fox. Malcolm had arrived a few weeks prior and hadn't become used to Annabeth's furry friend, especially the height he could reach with a jump.

Whiskers shrank down until he was small enough to fit in a tea cup before looking up at Annabeth with eye's that took up most of his face. A precaution, in case she was about to take revenge. Upon seeing this Annabeth seemed to hesitate for a moment, ha, she was going to try for revenge, his ultimate defence would come to his aid though.

From experience, he knew no one could hit him while he looked like this, it didn't make him any faster or anything, but one look at those big eyes and the person about to yell at him became putty in his paws. He remembered one time a son of Ares tried to punch him, he shrank down to this size, the demi-god took one look before breaking down crying and begging for forgiveness.

Annabeth had, unfortunately started to grow immune to this ability however so he needed to bring out the big guns. As Annabeth finally managed to get over the initial urge to hug the fox and coo, Whiskers eyes began to water. Annabeth saw this and bit her lip, it was taking all her will not to hug the fox and try to make everything better, when the first tear fell though she broke.

"Okay, okay, stop it." Annabeth said, "here have some brisket." The daughter of Athena said, coming as close to admitting defeat as a child of Athena could.

"Thank you," even his voice became higher, like a child's, the smug grin he gained though did not fit the previous image.

Whiskers looked around, it seemed he was later than he thought, the demi-gods were all digging in to their food munching and chatting away with one another, in fact it looked like they were almost done. Whiskers then took a longing look at Annabeth's cup, Annabeth noticed this and sighed, she took one last sip before holding the cup in front of the fox's face and letting him have at it.

"Thanks Annie!" The fox said, "orange juice." He said before the cup filled itself with the sweet tasting liquid, he immediately started lapping it up, the wide cup allowing his muzzle to fit in enough for him to drink the sweet beverage.

"What have I told you about calling me that." Annabeth hissed at him.

"Not to in public." The fox said in between laps.

Annabeth flushed slightly and a few of her older siblings chuckled good-naturedly, "stop calling me it all together."

The fox looked up at her again and she looked away, knowing that she wouldn't be able to say no again, "but Annie, what do I call you then."

"Annabeth." She said.

"'K then," he smirked, "but what if I'm in a hurry and I have to get your attention really quickly? Can I call you Annie then?"

"No, just call me Annabeth." Annabeth said.

"Well if you want me to be more formal you only had to ask." Whiskers said.

Annabeth had known Whiskers for a long time, long enough to know what would happen now, "Whiskers, I'm pretty sure I know what you-"

"Mistress what may I do to serve you, I am your humble pet." Annabeth sighed before growing an evil grin.

"Well… since you're my pet…" she grabbed a spoon and waved in front of his face for a minute, "fetch!" She yelled as she threw the spoon out of the pavilion. The fox jumped at the spoon and caught it mid-air, he landed with his tail wagging and turned to her a happy grin on his face. Then he seemed to realise what happened and scowled at her.

"I thought we agreed you wouldn't do that anymore." He said.

"Well, since you keep calling me Annie, I feel like I should keep playing fetch with you." Annabeth said, an innocent grin on her face.

"Oh, are you trying to blackmail me?" The fox said a malicious grin spreading on his face, Annabeth felt her heart sink at that. "Well then, if you want to play fetch let's see what happens when I throw out a few secrets then. Hey, everyone, do you want to hear about the time Annie wet the-"

Annabeth clamped onto the fox's muzzle, closing the distance between them in milliseconds, a threatening glare told him to shut it, but the red face was begging him to unleash her secrets. "Shut up," she hissed.

He simply smirked as he escaped her hold and jumped to her shoulder, "aww, Annie, as if I would ever let such blackmail go like that. Of course, if you were to agree to stop treating me like a dog, I would have no need for such vicious blackmail to be freely exposed to everyone."

"Fine." Annabeth grumbled before lifting the fox off her shoulder and putting him on the ground, he grew to her knee level and padded along beside her. They made their way back

By the time they had returned to their seat everyone was finished had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof against the floor to gain the attention of all the ADHD demi-gods, he had to do it several times since anyone who paid attention immediately got distracted and had to re-focus. Mr. D got up with a huge sigh to begin his short speech.

"Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels." All the children at the Ares cabin cheered loudly, Bandit, who had been napping on Clarisse's head woke with a start and reminded a surprisingly bashful daughter of war of his existence, after he finished holding on for dear life.

The Athena cabin muttered amongst themselves, planning on making it back to their rightful place as the victors. Annabeth looked over to Percy and an evil grin formed on her face as her mind ran through the various scenarios, who knows, Percy looked similar enough to Thalia, maybe he really was her brother, another child of Zeus.

Whiskers sighed at the look on Annabeth's face, she still thought that Percy was a child of Zeus, normally she would have sussed it out by now, but her wishful thinking that there would be another child of Zeus, another Thalia… He could tell she didn't want to replace her, but he, looked quite like her and acted a lot like her, she wasn't trying to replace the daughter of Zeus, she just didn't want to fail him like he did her.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, breaking them out of their thoughts, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson." Chiron murmured something in the gods ear. "Err, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered, before they all headed down toward the amphitheatre, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along. They sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around.

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and they all filed back to the cabins.

Beside the camp fire, that still blazed into the night, two foxes sat. This never really happened, neither liked the other and their 'masters' were none too fond of each other either. Nevertheless, they sat there waiting for one of them to start. They were the only ones there, the harpies knew better than to attack either of them, they were nocturnal, that's why they slept most of the day. Normally they would enter the forest and hunt some monsters down for fun, or exit the camp and find something good to eat. For now, they sat in front of the blazing fire, both knew why, yet both were reluctant to speak.

Eventually Whiskers spoke up, "you could smell it too."

"Yeah," Bandit said, "the boy smells like us. He found another." Bandit grunted out.

"That's four." Whiskers said.

"I can count." Bandit snarled angrily.

"Easy, I was just saying. Me, you, Parrot and this new one. We're connected, how is anyone's guess though."

"What do we do. Somethings coming, it's going to involve us soon."

"I am aware. The weather, have you figured it out?"

"No. Have you?"

"I think so. I haven't told anyone what I suspect though. If I'm right war is on the horizon."

"What do you think has happened." Bandit then spoke the language of the foxes, it was ingrained in both their brains, and Parrots, when he was alive.

"The master bolt, it's been stolen." If Bandit was shocked, he didn't show it.

"Who?"

"I don't know, but I think it was someone who was there on the solstice, the same day that happened." Bandit looked confused for a moment before widening his eyes slightly.

"Are they connected?"

"Unless one of ours stole it, I don't think so."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know."

"I think it is about time we left. Too many of us are here as it is, you feel the same way, if another one comes it will only get worse, you have been fighting the urge the longest, you know I'm right."

"I know." He then looked over to the Athena cabin, "but I don't want to leave her, and it's nice here."

"But you want to hunt again, you want to be free, you want to be on the road again. Neither of us will fight the temptation if another comes." Bandit got up and started pacing around the other fox.

"Yes, but I know you're also curious, you want to know who we are too. I also know you care for her."

Now Bandit turned to the Ares cabin, he smirked slightly, "you're right, I don't want to leave her, but we must keep control, they don't need to see what happens when we lose it."

"…"

"I will probably leave before the summer ends. She'll be safe here, remember that."

"I know, but I have caught her inquisitive nature. I want to know who we are, and why the huntress is interested in us."

"We'll find out eventually."

"Before you go, I smelt another from him."

"Who?"

"I smelled them, it was faint, days old but it was there."

Bandit growled.

"They are part of this too, that I am sure. Goodnight."

The two foxes then split off and went their separate directions, both contemplating what they were going to do.

(With the Jinchuuriki)

Fu and Yuigto were just coming back, Fu holding Yugito by her collar like a 'bad kitten' and the blonde wasn't too happy with it, of course, she was too nervous to say anything in case she would be dropped again. Fu was happy with the silence, she wasn't sure if she would be particularly capable of talking with the thoughts running through her head. Her dad cared about her.

Sure, she got to meet him back when he told them where the others were, but now that she had the chance, to talk, properly talk with him. She felt almost normal, a normal girl with a dad who loved her. She wasn't of course, she was currently flying and had just come back from a conversation with a god in the sun, but it was the most normal thing she had felt in a long time.

Finally, the two of them touched down near the docks. They were about to go searching for their siblings when they felt the familiar buzz of chakra flaring up, about fifty metres to their right. They both turned and found the boat, a stern looking Yagura sitting on the… stern of the boat, her eyes glaring into them.

"Where were you two?" She asked dangerously.

"Umm, exploring?" Fu said.

"Not in the city, I kept track of all of you from here." The two girls suddenly noticed that the boat was much more crowded than it was when they left it, on every available surface women on the boat, sitting on the roof, on the deck and a few clung to the sides. The only place they seemed to avoid was the area directly surrounding Yagura, and it didn't look like they liked that. All of them were staring intently at the demi-god. The girls recognised these women as naiads and nymphs, spirits of the water.

"Umm, sis, you seem to have some visitors." Fu said, Yagura's eye twitched.

"I am aware, I went into sage mode to track all of you, didn't pay much attention to what was going on and exited to find myself surrounded."

"Okay." Yugito said, "why?"

"They said they're looking for a pan." Yagura said.

"Not a pan, silly girl," one of the nymphs said, "Pan, the great god, lord of the wild."

"Watch it, you're on my boat so don't get smart with me." Yagura said before turning back to her sisters, "they've been scouring the boat all day, looking for this Pan guy, don't know what he's doing on my boat, but I didn't invite him."

"Okay, sis, quick word." Yugito gestured her sister to join them on the dock, she did so, after glaring at the nymphs, daring them to break her boat.

"What is it?" Yagura asked.

"Pan is the god of the wild, nature, that sort of stuff." Yugito said.

"Yeah, isn't much natural on the boat, only thing in any way natural is my… sage mode." An expression of understanding crossed her face. "Oh."

"Yup, you brought them all there."

"Right, so we just explain what happened and they'll leave." Fu said.

"No, we tell them that and they'll want answers, we're leaving as soon as possible, we can't answer their questions." Yugito said.

"Right, so what's the plan?" Fu asked.

"Well, if they sense our sage chakra, why don't we give them some?" Yagura said.

"But I thought we wouldn't tell them about sage chakra, why would we… oh." Fu smiled mischievously.

"That seems a bit cruel." Yugito said.

"They deserve it, not even asking permission, just hopped aboard."

"Hey, where's Utakata?" Yugito asked, suddenly noticing their brother was currently missing.

"Oh, I knocked him out a couple hours ago." Yagura said dismissively. "So, who's going to do this?"

"You, they sensed your sage mode, there might be some difference in the types of sage mode, I only saw naiads and sea nymphs there, no dryads or non-aquatic spirits, maybe turtle sage mode only attracts sea nymphs. Maybe I'm wrong, but we don't want to do this wrong."

"Okay, I'm gonna go that way and make a clone to do it, then all we have to do it is wait." She did so and came back just in time to see the spirits jump off the boat.

"The nature is coming from that way!" One of them yelled and in a matter of seconds, they were gone.

"That was easy." Yugito said as they clambered back into the boat.

"Yeah, now we wait on the others." As she said this B and Garra appeared, B carrying a boom box and a plastic bag with a few dozen CDs.

"Yo, the rap in this world is sick, so now you need to hear my new tracks." B said, grinning.

"That didn't even rhyme!" Fu yelled.

"It don't matter 'bout the rhyme, get with the time." B said.

"How did you deal with him all day?" Fu asked Garra.

"…" Garra was silent.

"Garra." Fu tried.

More silence.

"Garra!"

"…"

"GARRA!"

"You say something?" Garra said, turning to face the irate jinchuuriki, sand particles fell from his ears, "I've had my ears plugged for the past few hours."

"Well that answers that question." Yugito said.

"Where are the others?" Garra asked.

"Utakata's passed out on the ship, don't know about the others." Yagura said.

"We just going to talk then, or are we going to find them?" Garra asked.

"Can't, using sage mode is a bad idea here." Yagura said.

"Why what happened?" B asked, worriedly, "did monsters track it or something?"

"No, nature spirits, thought we were Pan, didn't want to waste time saying we weren't, so we just led them away, but if they sense more nature energy, they'll swarm us."

"Fine, so how are we going to find them?"

"Don't need to." Roshi said as he walked over, "sorry for the wait, had a run in with some hellhounds, managed to fight them off but there were a lot of them." The two of them looked tired, there were a few scrapes on the two of them, but, Hana seemed to be mostly fine, probably because it was her armour hidden by the mist, but she still looked roughed up. Roshi had a few minor cuts and his clothes were in a bad state, but other than that he looked fine.

"Do you need any nectar or anything?" Yugito asked.

"No, we'll be fine, just a few scrapes, be healed in a few hours."

"So, are we ready to go them?" Yagura asked.

"Physically? Yes, mentally? No." Fu said.

"Well, too bad, we're going, now, all aboard." Yagura said, they all made their way to the boat and went below deck, "now, next stop," Yagura paused and looked at the screen, "Iowa river." With that she hit the button and they were underwater again.


	6. Chapter 6

Whiskers had an uneventful few days, he had been watching Percy, everyone had, he was different, no one could guess his parent. Well, a few children of Athena and Whiskers could guess, and Annabeth would know if she wasn't so insistent that he was a child of Zeus.

He wasn't the best at fighting, nor was he a good archer, he couldn't wrestle, and he couldn't grow plants particularly well. The only thing he seemed to be particularly good at was canoeing, Whiskers could make a good guess at who it was, but he didn't want to offend any of the gods by guessing.

So, the days passed and eventually it was Friday night, time for capture the flag at last.

After an uneventful dinner, the conch horn sounded and they all stood up from their tables. Whiskers followed Annabeth and Malcolm who ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening grey, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree.

From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse, Bandit and Sherman Yang ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

Percy turned to Luke and yelled, "those are the flags?"

"Yeah."

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always," he said. "But often, besides Bandit and Whiskers make them look much more intimidating."

"What do you mean, they're not that-" Before Percy could finish the two foxes, in sync, grew from the size of puppies to lion size in a couple of seconds. Percy jumped back slightly, an action mirrored by most of the newer campers, and a lot of the older ones, neither Annabeth nor Clarisse moved an inch though, each staring intently at the other.

"Umm, they don't actually fight, right?" Percy asked nervously.

"Not in capture the flag, Chiron forbade Whiskers after he nearly tore another campers leg off when they hurt Annabeth on her first match. When Bandit came along he put a blanket ban on bringing pets into the fights, especially after some of the Hephaestus kids started to make their own pets to bring into the fight." He shuddered, "those things were nasty, nearly lit the forest up on one of their test runs."

A slightly more relieved Percy decided to go off the topic of vicious canine's, both mechanical and biological, so he decided to ask something else, "so, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"

He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?"

He gave the traditional 'I'm a son of Hermes and you're now missing your wallet' look. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And _you_ are going to help."

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Whiskers had worked hard to gain support, he traded shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities, to win support for his team.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else, Bandit was much less diplomatic but still got many teams to join: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. Numbers don't win the war though, the Aphrodite kids wouldn't fight much, and the Demeter kids weren't much for fighting, Castor and Pollux were only two, but they were good fighters, but the Hephaestus cabin would pose the second biggest threat, even if there were only four of them. Of course, the Ares cabin would be the biggest threat, all of them were built like tanks, and it felt just about as painful to get hit by one.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble, silencing everyone, the tense atmosphere was making a few people sweat. "Heroes!" the centaur announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. No pets!" He looked at the two foxes for that one and shook his head, "I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, ox hide shields coated in metal.

"Whoa," Percy said, eyeing the spread wearily, "We're really supposed to use these?"

Luke looked at the poor boy like he was mad, 'sure go ahead and go unarmed into a small battlefield full of violent slightly bloodthirsty demigods' his face seemed to say. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here, Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."

He then handed him a shield almost the same size as him and possibly weighing more, and a helmet that looked ridiculous on his eleven-year-old head. The helmet had a plume of blue feathers which suited Percy nicely, if the plumes were reversed and he ended up with red he may have very nicely asked Clarisse to join her team.

Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!" To add to this her fox growled at them, they all sped up as fast as they could, leaving the fox behind with Chiron.

The blue team headed south whilst the red team made their way north, both foxes hung back with Chiron, they made sure to keep a good distance between each other. Chiron eyed the two of them for a moment before looking back to the forest.

"Who do you think will win?" He asked conversationally.

"Clarisse/Annabeth!" The two said at the same time, before turning on each other, Chiron sighed, he shouldn't have said anything.

"Clarisse is the better fighter, she'll cream anyone she comes up against, they have Hephaestus' and Demeter's cabins to make traps while Castor and Pollux guard the flag, and the Aphrodite kids can distract any of the Apollo kids." Bandit said triumphantly.

"But Annabeth has a plan." Whiskers said, like it solved everything, "Travis and Connor make traps then guard the flag, the rest of the Hermes kids and the Athena cabin lead the charge, Apollo kids bring up the rear, shooting anything they can, whilst Luke sneaks around, disarming any traps and stealing the flag, he is fast enough to make it back before any of them even notice its gone."

"He won't be able to get past Castor and Pollux and then make it past the entire Ares cabin." Bandit said.

"Your right, but he won't have to get passed the entire Ares cabin." Whiskers said as Bandit smirked.

Bandit scowled. "Luke let her overhear him, Clarisse knows where Percy is."

"Yup, without Clarisse and possibly her siblings, five at most, Luke will sneak through the gaps and make his way to the creek, winning the game."

"It might not happen like that, Clarisse mightn't take the bait… dammit she will." Bandit said.

"Yeah, but let's see what happens."

Eventually they heard the cheers of a victor from the border and quickly found themselves seeing the end of the blue's victory. Luke held the flag aloft instead of the red spear a silver background held a caduceus, Bandit scowled, and Whiskers cheered. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders.

Chiron blew the conch horn, signalling game over. Blue had won, and Hermes now held the flag.

Bandit saw Clarisse lying in the creek and made towards her, upon noticing a large bruise on her head he snarled. She looked just as angry as him and glared at Percy, Bandit noticed this and growled at the son of Poseidon looking ready to pounce on him. Whiskers simply strolled over besides Percy and jumped up, he landed on nothing, or rather, he started flying. Percy looked extremely freaked out, before Annabeth spoke, coming from the nowhere that was coincidently holding Whiskers. "Not bad, hero."

Percy looked like he was trying, and failing, to not freak out, before Whiskers bit down on a hat that was suddenly there, along with an Annabeth.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked.

"You set me up," Percy began, his face morphing into anger. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"Revenge." Whiskers muttered but stopped giggling under her glare.

"A plan to get me pulverized."

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

Then she noticed his wounded arm. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," Percy replied. "What do you think?"

"No. It _was_ a sword cut. Look at it."

The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading turning into a small scar, and disappearing.

"I-I don't get it," Percy said.

Annabeth was thinking hard, Whiskers grimaced, doing it with a muzzle was a difficult task.

"Step out of the water, Percy." She said stiffly, as if this final test would show any different.

"What-"

"Just do it."

He came out of the creek and nearly collapsed, his entire posture shifted, and he was only standing due to Annabeth's intervention between him and the ground.

"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is _not_ good. I didn't want... I assumed it would be Zeus..." Whiskers sighed, her emotions were getting in way of her thoughts, she wanted to help train Thalia's brother, give her a legacy. Instead she was stuck with the son of her mother's rival and was probably going to feel conflicted of the friendship she began with him over the short time between them.

Before any more could be said, a canine growl came from the trees, too close to be comfortable. The campers looked from Bandit to Whiskers who deadpanned them, before a howl ripped through the forest. Chiron shouted in Ancient Greek, " _stand ready_! _My bow_!"

Annabeth drew her sword, and Whiskers stood at her side, slowly growing to the rather intimidating size from before, his hackles raised making him seem even bigger.

There on the rocks just above them was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers. It was looking straight at Percy.

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"

She tried to step in front of him, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her, an enormous shadow with teeth, and just before it hit, a flash of silver appeared in front of it. Whiskers tackled the monster, his smaller frame somehow knocking the hound of course, the faint thwack of a bow string resounded through the forest as an arrow struck the hound in the neck.

Unfortunately, one arrow did no good, no one else dared to fire in fear of hitting the fox, especially after Annabeth called for the bows to be put down. The hound hit the river, Whiskers on top of it. His silver fur seeming to shine in contrast to the inky blackness of the hellhounds matted fur.

Whiskers headbutted the hound dazing it, before biting down on the hounds now unprotected throat, the would-be fatal bite was knocked off course as the hound bucked like a bull and Whiskers teeth met the shoulder of the hound. Painful for the creature yes, but not deadly.

It howled angrily before smashing Whiskers in the back with his paw, be it the fates or the hound's own intelligence, the fox didn't fall off making sure there were no clean shots, Whiskers silvery fur covering the hound like a blanket. The fox's grip on the hound, however, never slackened, his teeth digging into the beast even as it swatted him, the hound seemed to be sick of this and so in painful looking maneuverer twisted his head so that the fox was within the grips of its jaws.

Before it could bite down though, both Percy and Annabeth yelled out, "no!" Apparently, the river agreed with them, wrapping around the hound, several ropes wrapped around the neck, pulling it away from the fox. The now startled dog of damnation yelped as the water pulled it further down river, Whiskers loosened his jaw and slipped of the now damp fur. Now that the fox was out of the way the river seemed to get really annoyed, the fox whined in pain as it was dragged deeper into the river before disappearing downstream.

Everyone was silent for a moment, looking at where the hound was before Percy collapsed onto Annabeth, who grabbed him, gently lowering him to the ground. He gasped for a few minutes, clutching his stomach like he was about to throw up, Whiskers padded over, looking concerned.

Then, Chiron trotted up next to him, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"What's wrong with him?" Annabeth asked.

"Exhaustion, he shouldn't have been able to do that so young, especially without practice."

"He did that?" Whiskers asked.

"Indeed." Chiron grimaced, "he should be fine, maybe some ambrosia, but this is only temporary."

 _"Di immortales!"_ Annabeth said, staring off at the spot where the hellhound disappeared. "That was a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to..."

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp." This would have been the perfect moment for lightning to strike, but as if he was too annoyed to allow a child of his brother to share in some dramatics, the sky remained stubbornly lightning free, the dark clouds looked ready rumbled angrily though.

Clarisse yelled petulantly, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

Luke called a few children of Apollo over, they always had some ambrosia handy, the exhausted demi-god took some, regaining some colour and looking better. He stood and immediately fell over again, Annabeth looked at the creek before looking back to Percy, "Percy get in the water." She said.

"I'm okay." He said sounding like he ran a marathon.

"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."

Percy was too tired to argue. He was led back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around him.

Instantly, he felt better. He stood, all fatigue gone. Some of the campers gasped.

"Look, I—I don't know what's going on," Percy said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."

But they weren't interested in him, they were more interested in something above his head. That something being the glowing green symbol of Poseidon, a trident hovered above him.

"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."

By the time he looked up, the sign was already fading, but he caught a glimpse of it, a sign from the gods.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is _really_ not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around him, campers started kneeling, even the glaring Ares cabin and their fox, though they didn't look happy about it.

"My father?" Percy asked, completely bewildered.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earth shaker, Storm bringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

(With the jinchuuriki)

They landed, or was that even the word? Ah well, they landed right beneath a few canoers, capsizing their boats and scaring the shit out of the passengers in the boats. After opening the latch and dragging B and Utakata onto the nearest river bank to wake them up they set up camp. Now, from a lot of experience while they were on the run, they knew how to live off the land, fortunately they didn't need to. They decided to all spend the night on the ship, and no one disagreed, well, they did decide this while B and Utakata were unconscious.

When they awoke, they weren't given a choice.

So, the eight of them spend the night in their cabins for the first time. Their night was nice, no monster attacks and no big issues, other than B and Utakata getting bad cases of seasickness. At this point that was to be expected.

It was almost nice, something that never lasted long.

Surprise, surprise the next morning they received a visitor, of the godly variety.

Yugito was up early for once, surprising since she was normally the one who slept in. So, she decided that she would get off the boat, water being something she never particularly enjoyed. It was probably Matatabi's influence, as both a cat and a cat made of fire the water just wasn't a nice place. That was why the cat originally moved to Kumo, there was very little water and there were nice spots for a cat to back in the sun, even a hundred-metre flaming one.

She had found a nice spot in one of the trees at the shore and found herself dozing off, the sun was just rising and, as luck would have it, the first rays hit her, warming her. It was almost like Apollo was apologising for throwing her out of his car yesterday.

"What a nice morning." A voice woke her up from her catnap. She didn't even smell them, they were just there. She opened her eyes and sprang into a fighting position, claws out. "That is an odd way to say hello." The person said.

Yugito was stunned for a moment, the person in front of her was beautiful, an angel, perfection itself. Her skin was clear of any marks, her hair a pale blonde and her eyes reflected her very own black orbs, it took her a moment to figure it out, but that person was her. Or at least future her, past her, de-aging was strange. It took her another moment to figure out who this person would be.

"Mom?" She questioned, the woman smiled and giggled slightly.

"Yes dear." She said smiling happily at her.

Yugito's mind went blank, here was her mother, the goddess of love, the woman who gave birth to her, and the first thing that she said to her was 'what a nice morning.'

"Oh, look at you, you're looking great." Aphrodite gushed.

"Thanks?" Yugito was confused, what does she say, absentmindedly she thought back to yesterday, Fu's meeting with Apollo. That wasn't their first meeting though, they had met before, so the casualness was sort of acceptable, but this was her first meeting with her mother.

"You don't need to think so hard." The goddess interrupted her thoughts, "just say what's on your mind."

"Why do you look like me?" She asked, she was kind of freaked out by being talked to by herself.

"Oh," Aphrodite looked surprised for a minute before a small grin appeared on her face, "that's interesting," then her grin was replaced by a grimace, "and sad."

"Why?"

"Usually, I appear as the personification of beauty to the person who looks at me, thin, fat, blonde, redhead, pale, tan, petite, Amazonian," as she spoke her body changed to what she said before finally going back to Yugito, "don't get me wrong, it is nice that you see yourself as the most beautiful, there are a few like that, but you're not like them, you're not vain. That it interesting." Aphrodite smiled at her.

"And, why is it sad?"

Aphrodite looked down sadly, "It's sad because of why." She took a deep breath, "you don't have the same view on beauty as most people, you see beauty as strength, a view you sadly kept from your village." She scoffed, "strongest village. Stupid mortals, they know nothing of strength." She looked at Yugito with a smile, "that's why the pinnacle of beauty is yourself, you see yourself as the strongest. A few years ago, it may have been one of your siblings, probably B since he was around you more." She giggled, "that would have been interesting, I wouldn't have been a man, not unless I specifically wanted to, but I would have been a female version of him."

"Oh." Yugito honestly didn't know what to say to that, her mother basically told her that she was wrong, that one of the aspects of her divinity was wrong in her daughter.

"There's nothing wrong with that, you know." Aphrodite said, seeming to understand her mistake. "I just find the reason to be sad, not you."

"Err, thanks. Mom." Yugito didn't how to ask if she could look different, it was strange speaking to herself.

"I can see you're uncomfortable talking to yourself like this," as if reading her mind, her form changed, her hair lightened until it was nearly white, while her skin darkened, finally her eyes became a strange dark cobalt that seemed to dance in the early morning sunlight. She looked herself up and down before smiling, "this was the form I was in when I met your father," Yugito felt a lump form in her throat.

"So, that-that's his." Yugito gulped.

"Yes, this is what he pictured the most beautiful woman in the world to be." Aphrodite had a small smile. "I thought he had such a strange idea of perfection, it intrigued me, one of the reasons I approached him. That, and, the love he felt." Her smile tightened, "I went to Kumo for a reason, from what I understand Artemis and Hera, they went all out and made themselves mortal forms, I didn't. They had their own reasons for it of course, I doubt either went to have a family, but they did. I on the other hand, went exploring. I wanted to see what the villages felt about love."

"Why?" Yugito asked in confusion.

"That world, I wanted to test a theory, that love is universal." She smirked triumphantly, "I was right, of course. The first place I went, Suna, well, I sensed Hera and left before she could sense me, I didn't want to deal with her, so I moved to Konoha, sensed Artemis and left quicker than I did Suna, nothing would spoil my little test like her. I went to Kiri," she frowned, "love was there all right, but it was tainted, so much hatred existed there, so I left. I went to Iwa and found the same, of course there was love, but I think there was a war going on, Iwa were losing I think, regardless, there was simply too much hatred for me to find anything. I finally came to Kumo." She sighed, "there was as much hate there as there was in Kiri, I was about to try some of the smaller villages next when I sensed love." She smiled, "your father, he was filled with so much love, but it wasn't directed at the village like so many others. It wasn't even directed to anyone in the village. In the whole world he had only ever loved eight people, but the amount of love he felt for them… They were his world."

"So that's why you… approached my father?"

"One of many." She looked out to the sun, "I wondered why he didn't love anyone in the village, so I tested what they felt for him," she scowled, "hatred, fear, anger. Everywhere he went, he was hated."

Yugito felt her heart constrict, Matatabi had spoken only spoken about her father on occasion, she never really asked. Now she felt that was wrong, she should have asked more about her father. She had always been afraid that he resented her, she was the reason he died, she had killed him, after hearing what happened to Garra, or at least what Garra believed, she dreaded hearing the same. She was afraid that her father hated her, that he hated the fact that she lived while he could not.

"So I approached him, and I found out what he thought was perfection. Such a strange combination, so I searched through his mind for why, just the surface thoughts, the skin tone is the norm in that region, pretty simple, the hair was from one of his teachers, a small crush, again simple, but the eyes." She smiled, "he loved them, the only thing I could find about that was his first friend. I pried a little deeper and found flames, blue and black flames on a cat." She giggled. "At the time I had no idea what that meant, now though, I guess he truly cared for the bijuu." She paused, "you don't remember him, do you?"

"No." Yugito managed to say without stuttering, but failed with the next question, "did he love me?"

Aphrodite smiled, "he loved you more than anything, more than the bijuu, more than the other jinchuuriki and more than me, and so do I."

Yugito felt her heart speed up, her eyes moistened slightly, Aphrodite saw this and brought her daughter into a hug, "it's okay, just let it out."

She did. Years of fears were built upon that question, was she loved by her parents, and now she knew the answer, her fears were false. Relief coursed through her, and she cried in her mother's arms.

After a few minutes of crying the mother and daughter separated, the goddess wiped away her daughters tears and kissed her on the forehead. They sat there in silence for a moment, watching the sunrise together.

"So, what did you think of Apollo yesterday?"

"He seemed nice." Yugito said, not knowing where this was going.

"I meant do you think he's hot?" Aphrodite asked, if Yugito were taking a sip of something at that time it would have been coating the goddesses face.

"W-w-what? Why would you ask that?!" The jinchuuiki asked.

"Oh, come on, I haven't talked boys with one of my girls in a long time and you just saw some prime material yesterday. I'm just making up for lost time."

"He was… hot." Yugito admitted.

"I know, I used to think he was too girly most of the time, but he's actually quite dominant in bed."

Again, if she was drinking something the goddess would have a new coat of make-up on her face. "Y-you slept with him?"

"Of course, I've slept with most of the gods on Olympus, and the majority of the goddesses. Many times, in most cases. Except our king, ironically, I've only slept with him a few times over the centuries. Most gods numbers are well into the-" Yugito cut her off.

"I don't need to hear about my mother's sex life thank you very much." A very red Yugito said.

"Aw, you're no fun." Aphrodite complained. "Well, I'd best be going anyway, if you ever need anything don't forget to pray, unless it's something small I'll try to help." She turned to go but then turned back, "ow, and don't forget to change it up from time to time, your look I mean. There's nothing wrong with it as it is, but variety is the spice of life."

"I don't have much to change into these days." Yugito said.

"I'm not talking about your clothes, but I think you'll figure it out soon, just remember that children always inherit something from their parents, with demi-gods its normally more obvious. Many people think my children are useless, but they can be the most powerful, especially in your old line of work, where it becomes necessary to be someone else. Bye for now." And with that she was gone.

 **AN: Okay, i only have this one done because it was nearly done, the next update should be sometime next week at the earliest, maybe a bit later. Hope you enjoyed.**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Okay, I honestly didn't expect to get this done this quickly, see, I've been using my original version of this story and changing it, so I have a lot of it done, I've made lots of changes but just having the skeleton structure of this just sort of helps. But this chapter is longer than the others, so I thought it would take much longer to do, but it didn't so, yeah, you lot get this earlier than expected, just don't expect me to have everything done so quickly, the lightning thief is only getting done like this since I have the skeleton, once I get back to sea of monsters I'll be a good bit slower. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.**

The next morning, Chiron moved Percy to cabin three.

The poor boy looked completely lost, there was no one to tell him what to do, no one to keep an eye on him, it seemed a bit irresponsible, then again, they were teaching kids to fight monsters. He had his own table for meals, so he sat alone trying not to look to depressed, he failed. On the plus side, he had plenty of room for his minotaur horn and toiletries.

Nobody mentioned the hellhound, at least not to his face, people talked behind his back in hushed whispers. The attack had left everybody in shock, sending a message to the whole camp, monsters would stop at nothing to kill him because of his father, no matter who was in the way. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.

The other campers steered clear of him as much as possible after that, like they feared he would bring them to their deaths.

Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with him after what he'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, so the lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed Percy harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise him up in the process.

"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as they were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."

Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill Percy for breaking her magic spear. Bandit snarled at him every time he saw him but still made sure to stay away, but that was rarer now as he stayed by Clarisse most of the time.

The only person, fox, who could stand to be around him was Whiskers, much to Annabeth's ire. After he had been moved to the Poseidon cabin the fox had followed him, keeping an eye on him, almost like his own guard do-fox, he's a fox gods damnit.

Annabeth was not happy with this.

To her it was a betrayal, her best friend who had been with her from her time on the run, the one who looked after her in the wild had betrayed her for her mother's rival. She was giving him the silent treatment.

Annabeth still taught Greek in the mornings to him, but she seemed distracted, and refused to look at Whiskers. Every time Percy said something, she scowled at him, as if he'd just poked her between the eyes.

After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest... Poseidon?... Dirty rotten... Got to make a plan…"

Somebody at camp seemed to resent Percy more than the others, because one night he came to his cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the _New York Daily News,_ opened to the Metro page. The article took almost an hour to read, because the angrier he got, the more the words floated around on the page.

 _'BOY AND MOTHER STILL MISSING AFTER_ _FREAK CAR ACCIDENT'_

 _BY EILEEN SMYTHE_

 _'Sally Jackson and son Percy are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken._

 _The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding._

 _Mother and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident._

 _Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, is a troubled child who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past._

 _Police would not say whether son Percy is a suspect in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.'_

The phone number was circled in black marker.

"Don't read that crap." Whiskers said, appearing in the doorway, he then looked back to his den, "actually could I use it, there's a… mess in my den that I need to clean up, unless you want to keep it."

"You… made a mess of your den?" Percy said gagging slightly, "don't you sleep there?"

"Yeah…" Then he then seemed to understand what Percy was getting at, "no, I don't shit in my den, what kind of animal do you take me for?" He looked slightly green at the thought.

"A fox. So, what's the mess?" Percy asked.

"Well… err… none of your business. I didn't shit my den though. It's more of an issue with the ecosystem around my den than what happened in my den. Look, can I just have the paper?"

"Fine." He rolled up the paper and handed it to the fox who sauntered off to his den paper in tow, Percy could have sworn he heard the fox mutter something about needing to house train her, but he wasn't sure.

"Lights out," He said to himself, already missing the fox's mere presence.

That night, he had the worst dream yet.

He ran along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind him. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.

About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green.

They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.

Percy ran at them, trying to stop them, he didn't know why, but the harder he ran, the more the wind blew him back, until he was running in place, heels digging uselessly into the sand. It would have looked comical, if not for the urgency of the situation.

Over the roar of the storm, he could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, _Give it back! Give it back!_ Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.

The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying the surroundings with salt.

Percy yelled, " _Stop it! Stop fighting!"_

The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned his blood to ice _._

 _"Come down, little hero,"_ the voice crooned. " _Come down!"_

The sand split beneath him, opening a crevice straight down to the centre of the earth. His feet slipped, and darkness swallowed him.

Percy woke up.

He was still in bed in cabin three. It was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. That hadn't been part of the dream.

There was a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.

"Come in?"

Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you."

"Why?"

"He wants to kill... I mean, I'd better let him tell you."

Nervously, Percy got dressed and followed, mentally preparing himself for the trouble that was going to happen the trouble that he was in for simply existing.

The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish his existence, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict.

Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in the direction of the camp. Percy asked Grover if an umbrella would be necessary.

"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."

"Or the lord of the sky wants it to." Whiskers said as he appeared on Percy's right padding along right next to him.

Percy realised Grover was right. In the week, he'd been there, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds he'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley. But this storm...this one was huge. Like Whiskers said, the big boss of the sky was in charge, and right now he was likely in the mood to kill his nephew.

At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm. As Percy turned his backs their eyes all found their way to him, but a short growl from Whiskers sent them scattering.

Grover and Percy walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on the first day of camp. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheel chair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.

"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrity."

Percy waited, nervously.

"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to bow to you, mortal, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."

A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.

"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.

Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth, Whiskers sat on the steps of the porch and it looked like he dozed off.

"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble, but…Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."

"Spontaneous combustion _is_ a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.

"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Boy wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself. I'm thinking of turning you into a dolphin instead, sending you back to your father."

"Mr. D-" Chiron warned.

"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the boy is still here when I get back, I'll turn him into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."

Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A security pass. He snapped his fingers. The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.

Chiron smiled, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover."

They did, Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.

"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"

Just hearing the name made Percy shudder, the boy glanced over to the fox, who's ears perked up, but otherwise looked asleep.

Chiron probably wanted Percy to say something brave, say how it was easy, and how controlling water had been a piece of cake. Percy didn't feel like lying to the immortal trainer though.

"It scared me," he said. "If it hadn't been for Whiskers, I'd be dead."

"You'll meet worse, Percy. Far worse, before you're done."

"Done... with what?"

"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"

He glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers, it looked like he was trying to do it subtly, but that wasn't the satyr's strong point.

"Um, sir," Percy said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."

Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."

Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as anyone could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.

"Poseidon and Zeus," Percy said. "They're fighting over something valuable... something that was stolen, aren't they?"

Chiron and Grover exchanged looks. Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"

Percy blushed, looking like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And... I've also been having these dreams."

"I knew it," Grover said.

"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.

"But it is his quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"

"Only the Oracle can determine."

Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."

They three of them turned when they heard a slight grunt of satisfaction, they saw a silver fox sitting near them, "sorry, he said, don't mind me," he then continued to sit where he sat.

"Whiskers, what are you doing here?" Chiron asked as if he had only just noticed him, the centaur seemed jumpy though.

"Nothing," the fox replied, "just giving the kid some moral support." He then looked at Percy, "so continue, Zeus has lost his lightning bolt." He urged Chiron to continue.

Percy looked nervous. "His… lightning bolt?"

"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned, he looked at Whiskers, angrily. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."

"Oh." Percy seemed to get the gravity of the situation if his pale face was anything to go by.

"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"And it's missing?"

"Stolen," Chiron said.

"By who?"

"By _whom_ ," Chiron corrected, once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you."

Percy's mouth fell open like he was about to laugh, then he swallowed that and made a strange face like a mix between a grimace and abject terror.

"At least," Chiron held up a hand, "that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' 'Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' etcetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly—that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."

"But I didn't-"

"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."

"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!"

Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around the camp, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing the entire camp in it like a coffin lid.

"Err, Percy ...?" Grover said. "We don't use the _c_ -word to describe the Lord of the Sky."

"Perhaps _paranoid,"_ Chiron suggested.

"Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam..." He looked at Percy as if the poor boy could remember it, poor kid wouldn't remember his own name if it hadn't heard it yelled over and over again by angry authority figures. How could anyone accuse this kid of stealing a god's weapon? He'd more likely think it was a fancy lava lamp, and blow himself up by plugging it into the wall.

Chiron didn't seem to realise this and looked at him expectantly.

"Something about a golden net?" Percy guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods...they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"

"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along—the proverbial last straw."

"But I'm just a kid!"

"Percy," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"

"But I didn't do anything. Poseidon—my dad—he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"

Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"

"Bad?" Percy guessed.

"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions of dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."

"Bad," Percy guessed.

"And you, Percy Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."

It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky. Percy had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of him. He was furious.

"So, I have to find the stupid bolt," Percy said bitterly. "And return it to Zeus."

"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"

"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?"

"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago...well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."

"Why can't you tell me where the bolt is beforehand?"

"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."

Percy swallowed. "Good reason."

"You agree then?"

He looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly. Easy for him. He didn't have an angry god watching his every move ready to kill him.

"All right," he said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."

"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."

As Percy left Chiron glanced over at Whiskers, or rather where Whiskers had been, the fox was gone, "probably off to find Annabeth." The centaur said to himself.

The horse was wrong. Whiskers hadn't gone to find Annabeth, rather he had followed Percy, his curiosity peeking when he heard he was going to see the oracle. He stalked the eleven-year-old silently, the boy didn't know he was being followed, why would he think anyone would follow him to see the person who can drive you insane? Come to think of it, why was he following the son of Poseidon.

That line of thought disappeared when the fox who was previously following the demi-god, suddenly was not following the demi-god, in fact he appeared to be floating in mid-air. The fox was stunned for a moment, allowing himself to be brought into an empty room in the big house.

After a moment he figured out what happened he sighed before flicking his nose up and knocking off the baseball cap from Annabeth's head.

"What's up Annie?" The fox asked.

"What's up? What do you think you were doing?" Annabeth whisper yelled.

"Calm down, I was just checking out the attic, maybe see the prophecy by given, you know, normal stuff." Whiskers replied.

"Normal? There's nothing normal about going and possibly driving yourself insane."

"Calm down, Percy's at just as much risk of insanity as me, if anything I will be better to have a second person to help the other down if they do go insane."

"Is this some game to you?"

"No, I'm just curious."

"Don't, curiosity killed the cat, I don't want to see what it does to foxes."

"Annie, calm down, if Percy was-"

"Oh, shut up about Percy, that's all that's important to you these days, Percy Jackson." Annabeth snapped.

"What? What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. You been with him all week."

"Are… are you jealous?" Whiskers asked in confusion.

"No, I'm not jealous. Why would I have to be jealous of that Seaweed Brain, I'm smarter and better and-"

"Annie, calm down, okay, now just listen to me." Whiskers sighed, "I'm sorry I haven't been hanging out with you for a while, but that is not all my fault. You've been avoiding me, and giving me the silent treatment ever since that game."

"I have not." Annabeth said, before giving in to his pointed look, "okay, fine. I may have been avoiding you, but only because you've been hanging around that Seaweed Brained idiot."

"Why don't you like him?" The fox asked the daughter of Athena.

"He's a son of Poseidon, my mom and his dad hate each other because of their rivalry-"

"That can't be your reason, he's not his father and, as smart as you are, you aren't your mother. You can't blame him for his father. It wouldn't be the wise thing to do." Whiskers said.

"But-"

"Annie, you can't just hate him because you think you have to because of your mother. Now tell me why you hate him."

"He's… he acts like an idiot. I'm smarter. He has no experience, I've been here for years. You hardly know him but you got so chummy with him all of a sudden. He's such a Seaweed Brain but you…"

"Are you jealous?"

"No! Why would I be jealous of him? I'm smarter, I've fought monsters for years, I'm stronger, I've been with you for years."

"Annie, you're jealous." Annabeth glared at him.

"No. I. Am. Not." She growled out.

"So, you won't mind if I move den?" She froze, "there's a nice spot by the Poseidon cabin, and since you're so bothered by me during dinner I think I'll go to another table. Percy has plenty-"

"Stop, okay I'm jealous." Annabeth said, turning away from the fox, "happy?"

"Not unless you are." Whiskers said softly.

"You have Percy now, just make him happy." Annabeth said quietly.

"Annabeth Chase." Whiskers said firmly, "you are not being replaced. You are the best friend I have ever had, and will ever have. Percy has nothing on you."

"Then why?" Annabeth asked, still refusing to look at him.

"Because he's alone." Whiskers said quietly, "he has no one." His eyes gained a misty look to them, "alone." A headache was growing in the fox, but he ignored it, "he's hated and feared. People are afraid of him, why? He's just a boy." Whiskers eyes darkened, the white fading to black. "I did nothing to them." The blue of his irises bled into red, "they betrayed me, made me a-"

"Whiskers!" Annabeth said, startling the fox.

"What?"

"You were muttering to yourself, you looked out of it." Worried grey looked into bright blue, "I was worried."

"Sorry, Annie." He then seemed to remember his point, "Percy's alone, he needs friends, he needs people to be there for him, especially now. He's just lost his mother and found out that he's being hunted by his uncles. How would you feel if that happened to you? I don't need an answer, it would be horrible, which is why I've been sticking by him. Besides, he saved my life."

Annabeth winced at that before looking the fox in the eyes, "I'm… I'm sorry for ignoring you. I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry for being jealous. I just… he looks like he remembers you. I was scared that you… that he was your…"

"Owner?" Whiskers tried, and Annabeth winced, "it's fine, but no, I have never met the boy before he came to camp. Besides, you're my owner Annie."

"I'm not you're owner, you're my friend." Annabeth then lifted the fox up and hugged him, "now, let's go see how the prophecy went."

"Yeah." Whiskers agreed, "but put your hat on." Before she did, the fox hoped underneath it, "I think we are long overdue a quest."

Percy walked in a daze from the attic, is gaze was elsewhere as he made it back to the porch, after the fox and girl duo had already made themselves comfortable on the porch. Whiskers had escaped the hat and was now reclining on the floor at an invisible Annabeth's feet, this served two purposes, the fox had a comfy seat, and he made sure no one bumped into the invisible girl, his husky size ensured that.

"Well?" Chiron asked as he took notice of Percy's appearance.

He slumped into a chair at the pinochle table. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."

Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"

"What did the Oracle say _exactly?"_ Chiron pressed. "This is important."

Percy shivered as he sat there, obviously the experience wasn't very pleasant. "She... she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."

"I knew it," Grover said.

Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"

Percy took a short glance to the dozing fox for a second, an indescribable look of weariness on his face.

"No," he said finally. "That's about it."

Chiron and, unknown to the demi-god, Annabeth studied his face, looking for any signs to show more of the prophecy he was obviously lying about. "Very well, Percy. But know this: The Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."

"Okay," Percy said, anxiously attempting to change topics. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"

"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"

"Somebody else who wants to take over?" Percy guessed.

"Yes, quite. Someone who harbours a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."

Percy looked deep in thought for a moment before he shivered slightly

"Hades."

Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."

A scrap of aluminium dribbled out of Grover's mouth, if only he hadn't already eaten all the napkins. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"

"A Fury came after Percy," Chiron reminded everyone. "She watched the young man until she was sure of his identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."

"Yes, but—but Hades hates _all_ heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon..."

"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill this young half-blood before he can take on the quest."

"It seems a bit hasty," voiced the fox who was suddenly looking up, fully awake, "you are blaming one god, but he is not the only one who stands to gain if a war is fought. Maybe it was a minor god, or, gods forbid, not that they've done so well at that," thunder boomed overhead, "maybe it was a god that has already turned, maybe one going by another title. It could even have been one of the gods of war, or gods who thrive off the chaos war brings. There are many other options, true not as many that could, but there is still a large list of potential culprits." The fox said, making Percy think back to anyone else who could gain from war.

"That is not so important," Chiron said, though he seemed to be contemplating who else it could be, "though you speak with wisdom the most solid lead points to Hades."

"Great," Percy muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill me."

"But a quest to..." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."

"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."

Percy's eyes glowed with determination, all the fear from his visit with the oracle was now gone. The boy was determined to get the bolt back, but that wasn't all, to all the other porch dwellers it was obvious he was planning on saving someone. It wasn't that hard to guess who.

Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.

The poor guy needed to complete a quest with the son of Poseidon, so he could get his searcher's license, but he didn't look like he wanted to do that.

They heard a mumbling coming from Whiskers, he said something about them, "complete disregard…so mean…" Some of his fur moved in a strange pattern, like the wind was petting it.

"Look, if we know it's Hades," Percy told Chiron, Whiskers just glared at him "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."

"Suspecting and knowing are not the same, as Whiskers pointed out," Chiron said. Whiskers tail waged slightly, and he looked a bit happier, "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades, and I imagine Poseidon does, they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"

"You're saying I'm being used."

"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."

'My dad needs me.' Came a voice in Percy's head.

Percy's previous look of determination was replaced with a strange mix between happiness, anger and nervousness. Sure, the kid was ready to face the god of the dead and accuse him of stealing to incite war among the gods, but bring up his daddy issues and he was nervous.

Percy looked at Chiron meaningfully. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"

"I had my suspicions. As I said...I've spoken to the Oracle, too."

There was a pause as all of the occupants of the porch seemed to think over everything individually.

"So, let me get this straight," Percy said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."

"Check," Chiron said.

"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."

"Check."

"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."

"That's about right."

He looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.

"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.

"You don't have to go," the demi-god told him. "I can't ask that of you."

"Oh..." He shifted his hooves. "No... it's just that satyrs and underground places... well..."

He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminium bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."

Whiskers looked about ready to say something, but an invisible nudge made him think better of it, he just settled back into his position.

"All the way, G-man." Percy turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."

"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."

"Where?"

Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."

"Oh," Percy said. "Naturally. So, we just get on a plane-"

"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"

He shook his head, embarrassment blooming on his face, not realising his mistake he just looked confused, hoping someone would fill him in.

"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."

Overhead, lightning crackled, and thunder boomed, as if telling Chiron off for ruining the gods chance to kill his nephew.

"Okay," Percy said, looking anywhere but the storm, as if not looking at it would make it go away. "So, I'll travel overland."

"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, if you will accept her help."

"Gee," he said, feigning surprise. "Who else would be stupid enough to volunteer for a quest like this? Whiskers?"

The air shimmered behind Chiron. Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket, she glared at Whiskers slightly before turning back to Percy.

"I've been waiting a long time for a quest, Seaweed Brain," she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon," Whiskers swatted her with his tail and she glared lightly at him, "but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up."

"If you do say so yourself," Percy said. "I suppose you have a plan, Wise Girl?"

Her cheeks coloured, Whiskers giggled slightly, or so it sounded, strange but he could talk so it made most of the strangeness around him seem much less strange.

"Do you want my help or not?"

"A trio," he said. "That'll work."

"Oh yeah, sure." The fox spoke again, "my sidekick doesn't get to go without me, so you're going to have to bring me now."

"Err," Percy said, unaware of how to take care of the problem of the fox, he desperately looked around for support, but the others looked like they were enjoying this, except Annabeth.

"Sidekick?" She said, "if anything, you're the sidekick, you're only here for comic relief."

"Oh yeah? Well I can stick to walls, I'm spider fox. What does that make you?"

"Your boss, now go get ready, we'll be leaving soon." She then turned to Percy, "unless you have a problem with me bringing Whiskers."

"No, nope, no. No problems, none whatsoever." Percy was terrified of the Athena glare; poor kid would be seeing a lot of that.

"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."

Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.

"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."

(With the jinchuuriki)

After Yugito had her talk with her mother, she woke up the others. Well except Fu, but she was already up, she was an early riser, something they attributed to her father.

After they were all up and ready Yagura decided it was time to go, unfortunately the timer for their next jump was in another half hour.

So Yagura decided to just sail down the river for a bit, the eight of them relaxing until then. So that was how they all found themselves simply drifting downstream, most of them relaxing, except for the obvious exceptions of B and Utakata.

"You lived in water country most of your life, how can you not like it?" Fu asked.

"Probably has something to do with my uncle." He said in one of his rare not throwing up or heaving experiences on the boat, "probably why B's also throwing up overboard."

They looked over and found the bull jinchuuriki was indeed heaving over the side of the ship. Yagura had come up with the rule of 'you make it you clean it' after the two of them had painted the deck a disgusting beige colour. So, they were no trying to make sure all of their waste went off the boat and into the river.

This seemed to have angered the current residents of the river as soon several mermaids and mermen started lodging complaints with the captain. Yagura was currently hoping the time would pass faster, and had also come to the decision to stop feeding the two seasick jinchuuriki.

Just then Utakata joined his brother throwing up over the side of the ship, a few seconds later a nymph came to the surface and slapped him.

"Well, I'll go talk to Hana then." Fu said, abandoning her brother as he was yelled at by the nymph.

The daughter of Hephaestus was currently at the back of the boat, looking at the back of the boat.

"Sis, what'cha doing?" Fu said as she started hovering about a metre off the boat, just above the fully covered daughter of Hephaestus.

"Not much." Hana answered, "why?"

"No reason, just wanted to talk to you."

"Okay." There was a pause, "so how was your dad?"

"He was great." Fu beamed and in the sky the sun seemed to brighten ever so slightly, "he taught me to play the ukulele, do you want to see?" Fu asked.

"Yeah, sure." Hana replied.

"Okay, two minutes." Fu went to her bunk and grabbed her instrument before rushing back, "okay here goes." She then started to strum the strings, playing a slow melody, after a few minutes she stopped and smiled up to her sister in all but blood, "what do you think?"

"That was great." Hana smiled, "do you have the words of it?"

"Yeah, dad gave me the music sheets, they have the words with them." She thought to herself for a moment before grinning, "why don't you sing."

"No, I'm okay, you can do it." Hana declined.

"No, I can't, I've got to concentrate on playing the song, but you can sing."

"No, I can't."

"Come on, it'll be fun."

"I won't be any good."

"I don't care, I want to hear you sing."

"…fine."

"Okay, here's the words, umm, you see the notes, that's me, just try and time the words to the music. I'll try and keep to your pace."

"Okay, give me a minute." Hana read through the music, trying to time it with the music she heard a few minutes ago. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Okay, here we go." Fu then strummed the instrument quietly, a short introduction before she repeated herself and Hana joined in.

 _"Wise men say_

 _Only fools rush in_

 _But I can't help falling in love with you_

 _Shall I stay?_

 _Would it be a sin_

 _If I can't help falling in love with you?_

 _Like a river flows_

 _Surely to the sea_

 _Darling, so it goes_

 _Some things are meant to be_

 _Take my hand,_

 _Take my whole life, too_

 _For I can't help falling in love with you_

 _Like a river flows_

 _Surely to the sea_

 _Darling, so it goes_

 _Some things are meant to be_

 _Take my hand,_

 _Take my whole life, too_

 _For I can't help falling in love with you_

 _For I can't help falling in love with you."_

With that Fu struck the last chord and smiled at her sister, "that was great, you have a nice voice, ya' know."

"Thanks," Hana blushed as red as her armour, "I've never sung before."

"Well, you should do it more," she laughed to herself, "at least we know where we could get a job, the two of us could busk all the way around America."

Hana joined her sister in her singing, "that'd be nice."

"Yeah, after we find Naruto. Maybe he would like to join us." Fu sighed happily.

"Yeah." Hana looked back off the ship, "I miss him."

"We all do." Fu said then she smiled, "remember when we used to play frisbee with your hat?"

Hana laughed, "yeah. I remember. It was the first game he ever played with us, the first time I remember seeing him smile. He was so happy. I wish we could do that again."

"Yeah." Fu said, before brightening up, "well, until he gets back," she nabbed the hat off her sister's head, releasing her hair, one second it was a normal black hat, the next it was Hana's original conical hat, "you're going to be stuck just playing with me." She then fired the hat back to her sister who caught it.

"Yeah." Hana said as she threw it back, "just like old times."

Eventually Roshi and Yugito decided to join in, then Garra decided to join, flying off the ship like Fu and catching the hat with his sand. Even B and Utakata tried to join in, but the game quickly came to a close when B threw up in the hat, everyone except him and Hana burst out laughing.

"That's disgusting." Hana complained as she looked at her once red hat, now covered in the remains of their breakfast from this morning, "go clean it." She said to the eight tailed jinchuuriki.

"I would, but I can't even rap right now." B said as he leaned over the side of the ship.

"I don't care, I want this to be spotless!" The five tailed jinchuuriki yelled.

"Fine, fine, as soon as we stop," he threw up again, "I'll be sure to clean it up."

"Good." Hana then looked to Yagura, "ETA on the next jump."

Yagura took a quick glance into the cabin, "about ten minutes."

"Great, plenty of time for you to clean that up." Hana said as she grabbed B and jumped off the boat, she then walked to the shore and set him down roughly, "clean!" She said as he regained some colour.

The ship stopped at Yagura's command and they all decided to hop out and stretch their legs for a bit before their next jump.

Utakata looked happy with this and sat in the shade of a tree and just sat there calmly, Fu was flying about the treetops startling some birds who looked very annoyed at the sight of the mint haired jinchuuriki. Yagura staid on the ship, shipping at the front and looking into the water, she started to make random shapes with water, a look of concentration on her face. Yugito lounged in the same tree as Utakata, only a few feet above the son of Hades while Garra decided to make a small beach by grinding some of the rocks into sand with his own sand. Roshi pulled out a map of the state's some places were crossed out with orange and purple pen with dates beside them.

This was the map the two groups had made of the areas they had searched, the purple crosses were the 'Roman' jinchuuriki's and the orange, the 'Greek'. He had made the map by filling in any of the gaps the other group had left from their travels, and between the two of them they had covered most of the US. Only the northern states were left to search which neither group had gotten around to searching. He had been looking on the map to try to find anywhere Naruto could be, somewhere to search after they reached the camps.

Suddenly there was a howl from the forest and all of them stopped. They looked into the forest before turning to each other and moving closer to the ship. Fu was the closest to the forest, hovering just above the edge, as she slowly drifted back to the ship her senses screamed at her to move out of the way. She darted away just in time to avoid a pair of snapping jaws.

Fu was too quick to be caught in the next pair as another was soon to dart at her teeth first. She made it way from the forest, but the teeth followed. The teeth belonged to wolves, but not the normal type, nor were they the wolves of Lupa like the 'Roman' demi-gods remembered. The wolves were each the same size as Hana, the tallest of the jinchuuriki at the moment, and that was only on all fours.

They had dark brown fur that was matted and caked in mud, blood was fresh on their muzzles and their teeth were yellow and dripping saliva. They looked almost identical if not for the scar on the wolf on the right, going from its right eye straight down to its collar bone, the fur surrounding it being non-existent seeming to highlight it.

Suddenly more howls came from the undergrowth and four more wolves appeared, each of them being much smaller than the other two, only reaching half the height of the twin wolves, but just as vicious looking. These ones were slobbering, and their eyes gleamed with hunger.

They heard movement on the other bank and turned to find five more wolves, the wolves had surrounded them and were closing in.

"Werewolves." Roshi said, "looks like a wild pack, not normal but not too strange." He eyed the bigger two, "it looks like they are outcasts of Lycaon's pack. It's happened before, but they don't usually get this big. They can only be damaged by silver weapons." He glanced at Yagura, "how long until we're ready to go."

"Two minutes." Yagura replied after a quick glance to their exit strategy.

"So, we only need to hold them off for two minutes." Garra said, making a wall of sand between him and the five on the other bank, the wall rushed the creatures who yelped as they found themselves coated in sand. He then clenched his hand and the sand imploded crushing the animals, as it fell away the wolves just got up and the demi-gods watched as their flesh repaired itself slowly, "the sand isn't enough to kill them apparently." Garra said, before a vicious grin appeared on his face, "but I'm betting it hurts." The fallen sand rose again and once more the wolves yelped in agony as they were crushed. "You take care of the others, that's all the sand I have for now."

The others were already deciding how to fight this new threat, Fu clicked her hair clips and a quiver appeared on her back, followed by a bow appearing in her hands. She smirked and fired an arrow right through the eye of the scarred wolf, it went straight through his eye… and did nothing?

"Gold… not… touch." The big wolf who wasn't scarred said with what must have been a grin.

"Yeah, well I wonder how you feel about water then?" Yagura said as a pillar of water rose up and took out the grunts. The twin big wolves jumped out of the way though, but now they were the only ones, as the rest of the pack were thrown into the river, were they gurgled uselessly as they struggled against the unnatural current. "Okay," the daughter of Poseidon grunted, a look of concentration on her face, "now there are only two, could you take care of them, this isn't very easy."

"Sure, we got them." Yugito said, "let's put these dogs down."

"Yeah, little doggie wants to play, well let's see what ya got to say!" B said as he jumped at the scarred dog, he flashed through hand seals and his hands sparked with electricity, like a pair of boxing mitts, "let's see if these mutts can take much hits, lightning style: lightning fists!"

The wolf seemed surprised by this and got punched on the nose in his shock, it let out a yelp and jumped back, but B kept up, he punched anywhere that was available faster than the untrained eye could see. A few seconds later the wolf was smoking and whining in agony.

Lightning fists was originally called lightning fingers, and it worked much like the Hyuuga gentle fist, in that it attacked internally, unfortunately since the user couldn't see like a Hyuuga, they needed to learn the thousands of pressure points, nerve endings and muscle locations. B found a way to combat this though, you see most users only cover their finger tips and use it the same way the gentle fist is used, only using attacking nerves, pressure points and muscle groups. B didn't do this, instead he adapted it to fit him and covered his whole fists in lightning, it was much less precise, but each punch had enough surface area to hit a pressure point with most hits, and even if it didn't… they were being punched by lightning, it hurt. Of course, this technique took a lot of chakra, so normal people can't use it for more than a few seconds, but B wasn't normal, he could most likely use it indefinably.

B stood over the smoking wolf smirking, "little puppy didn't stand a chance, now, finish the other and let's bounce." Then the wolf stood up and started growling at the son of Zeus.

While B fought that one Hana went after the other, this one was probably the strongest, either that or the one B was fighting, they looked about the same. As Hana ran at the beast, it ran at her. Just as it was going to meet her it pounced, she jumped at it at the same time. This seems like the perfect time to slow down and think through her chances; this thing weighed at least ten thousand pounds and was rushing at her full force. She was a daughter of Hephaestus.

It was an easy win.

The wolf opened its mouth ready to tear through her, but she was quicker, as they met at the apex of the jump she punched it right in the jaw. The wolf went flying out into the forest, knocking down a tree on its way, Hana jumped after it, just in time to watch it stand up woozily. Hana walked towards it menacingly.

It looked up to her as she stood over it and she simply punched it in the face again, cracking the earth beneath them slightly, then she hit it, again, and again, and again. Over and over until it stayed down. She then looked it over once more and scoffed before walking back to the boat.

As she exited the forest she saw her sibling looking at her, "it's out." She simply said as she hoped on board.

B looked at the wolf that was currently whining after the fifth round against him, huh, what do you know wolves don't like lightning. "Yeah, mine doesn't look ready to get up any time soon, if he does, he's a buffoon."

"Mine are out of it I think." Yagura said gesturing to the wolves who finally stopped struggling. "Just in time by the look of it." She said as she gestured to the console.

"Garra, are yours ready to give up?" Fu asked the son of Hera.

"I think so," one of them whined particularly loudly, "yeah, they've stopped trying to attack and are now trying to escape."

"Good, now let's get going." Yagura said as all of them boarded the ship, Hana grabbed her now clean hat from B.

"Where are we going now anyway?" Hana asked Yagura, as the others went into the ships interior, instead of answering Yagura gestured Hana to come over and look at the map. 'Bar lake state park, Denver', it read.

"After that, we'll-" Yagura was cut off when a large object collided with Hana, the object being the werewolf that she thought was unconscious.

"Hana!" Yagura yelled.

In a matter of seconds many things happened, the werewolf bit into Hana's shoulder, Hana fell forward but turned around and kick the wolf off her, onto the deck. Somehow, either Hana or the wolf pressed the button Hana saw this and just before the ship sank beneath the waves, she used a small blast of compressed steam to close the latch for the others. It automatically locked, a feature, Hana had added after their first voyage, the first submergence freaked them out.

Yagura looked at the button dawning realisation turning to horror as she looked up from it to Hana, her unprotected sister who would not survive the pressure of the water.

Time seemed to slow as the ship sank, Hana looked Yagura right in the eye, before the ship sank beneath the water, Yagura started running she was just a few feet away, she reached out her hand and tried desperately to grab her sister.

Water reached their feet.

Hana closed her eyes.

The water reached their waists.

Yagura screamed out, "no!"

Then they were completely submerged.


	8. Chapter 8

It didn't take long to pack, none of them had anything much to bring, Percy decided to leave the Minotaur horn in his cabin, which left only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for him. The camp store loaned the quest one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron said, but Olympians never used less than pure gold.

Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions.

He gave Annabeth and Percy each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if they were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded. It would cure them of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn one up, literally.

Annabeth was bringing her magic Yankees cap, which she explained had been a twelfth-birthday present from her mom. She also carried a book on famous classical architecture, written in Ancient Greek, to read when she got bored, and a long bronze knife, hidden in her shirt sleeve.

Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green Rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reeds pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

Whiskers didn't bring anything with him, but he said he had to sort some things out, and was currently on his way to his den. Due to the short notice of the quest he hadn't been prepared to leave, normally he would be ready to go at the drop of a hat, preferably Annabeth's invisible on, but now he had to sort out a babysitter.

He made it to his den and entered to find the small chirping owl chick, he glanced at her and smiled, the chick just chirped happily. He gently lifted her up and wrapped her in his tail, before leaving and growing to the size of a husky to hide the small bird from prying eyes. He then slowly made his way over to the Ares cabin, hoping to find the only other living fox at camp.

Bandit was currently dozing next to Clarisse, who was arm-wrestling her older brother Mark, and winning. The Ares cabin was its usual state of chaos, but as Whiskers entered Bandit sat up and glared at the now slightly bigger fox, that was rectified as Bandit grew in seconds to match Whiskers.

"What do you want?" He growled at the other fox.

"I need to talk with you." Whiskers said, "in private."

"Fine." He then followed Whiskers outside.

They walked out into the forest were it was quiet and then Whiskers spoke fox, "I'm going on a quest. I need you to do something for me while I'm gone."

"Why would I do anything for you?"

"Because you won't have to deal with me anymore, I just need you to take care of someone."

"Who?"

As if to answer the chick wrapped in Whiskers tail chirped, he unfurled his tail and the chick hopped onto his back.

"I saved her not long ago and I've been taking care of her, her mother was killed in a territory dispute. I can't bring her with me, so I was hoping you could take care of her."

Bandit's eyes softened as he looked at the creature, "fine, I'll take care of her, now, if there's nothing else."

"There is actually, I'm going to be leaving soon, probably as soon as I get back, I mightn't see you, so could you give her a message."

"Fine, what is it?"

"Two minutes."

Whiskers gently handed the small owl to the other fox and then ran to the Athena cabin, he grabbed a spare piece of paper and a pen, he then used his tail to write down a letter for Annabeth, which took a few minutes. Once he was done he rolled it up and ran back to where the other fox was, he found him gently trying to teach the chick how to fly, as well as he could by signing every word.

"Here, give this to her, if I leave."

"If I may ask, why will you be leaving so soon?"

"We'll be gone for quite some time, one of us might grow used to the lack of competition and may be aggressive when I come back."

"Fair enough."

"Well, I'll be going then."

With that the fox left and made his way over to the rest of the questers on the hill near Thalia's pine, he was just in time too as the others had just made it.

Chiron was waiting in his wheelchair and next to him stood Argus, head of security. He had eyes all over his body, so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so you could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.

"This is Argus," Chiron told them, mostly Percy as the others were aware of who he was. "He will drive you into the city, and, err, well, keep an eye on things."

At the sound of footsteps and slightly laboured breathing, the group turned to see Luke come running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.

"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."

Annabeth blushed, the way she always did when Luke was around, and Whiskers giggled, the way he always did when Annabeth blushed.

"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told them. "And I thought...um, maybe you could use these."

He handed Percy the sneakers, which looked pretty normal, they even smelled kind of normal to anyone with a keen sense of smell like a fox.

Luke grinned at his confused expression and said, " _Maia_!"

White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling Percy to the point that he dropped them. The shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.

"Awesome!" Grover said.

Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.

Percy blushed at this, looking almost exactly like Annabeth, maybe the boy was developing a crush on Luke too. Wouldn't be the first, Luke was well liked by many of the girls, and boys, at camp.

"Hey, man," Percy said. "Thanks."

"Listen, Percy..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you. So just… kill some monsters for me, okay?"

They shook hands, Luke patted Grover's head between his horns, gave Whiskers a good scratch around his ear, then gave a good-bye hug to Annabeth, who looked like she might pass out.

After Luke was gone, Percy smirked lightly and told her, "You're hyperventilating."

"Am not."

"You let him capture the flag instead of you, didn't you?"

"Oh... why do I want to go anywhere with you, Percy?"

She stomped down the other side of the hill, where a white SUV waited on the shoulder of the road. Argus followed, jingling his car keys.

"I knew there was a reason I like you Percy." Whiskers said as he smirked up at the son of Poseidon, giving him a wink before he followed Annabeth, he said something to her and she blushed even more and swatted him on the head.

Percy picked up the flying shoes and then grimaced like he just found out they were infected with something that would kill him. He looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"

He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air... that would not be wise for you."

He nodded, disappointed, but then had a lightbulb moment. "Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"

The satyr's eyes lit up. "Me?"

Soon the sneakers were placed over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.

" _Maia_!" he shouted.

He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways, so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.

"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"

"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.

Before Percy could follow him, Chiron caught his arm. "I should have trained you better, Percy," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason…they all got more training."

"That's okay. I just wish-"

Percy stopped himself before he started sounding like a brat.

He gave a look of longing towards the shoes as they forced Grover head first into the van.

"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you get away without this."

He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to a slightly confused Percy. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.

"Gee," he said. "Thanks."

"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."

Percy remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when he vaporized Mrs. Dodds. Chiron had thrown a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be...?

He took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier. In half a second, a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs was held in Percy's hands. It was the first weapon that felt balanced to Percy.

"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron began. "Its name is Anaklusmos."

"'Riptide,'" Percy translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.

"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."

He looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals?" How could it not?

"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are _twice_ as vulnerable."

"Good to know."

"Now recap the pen."

He touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. He tucked it in his pocket, glancing at it nervously, like it would escape.

"You can't," Chiron said, as if reading his thoughts.

"Can't what?"

"Lose the pen," he said. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."

Warily, he threw the pen as far as it could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass.

"It may take a few moments," Chiron mentioned. "Now check your pocket."

Sure enough, the pen was there.

"Okay, that's _extremely_ cool," Percy admitted happily.

"But what if a mortal sees me pulling out a sword?"

Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."

"Mist?"

"Yes. Read _the Iliad._ It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."

Percy put Riptide back in his pocket. For the first time, the quest felt real. He was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill, heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if they were to use one, it would be worse than sending up a flare.) He had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.

"Chiron..." Percy said. "When you say, the gods are immortal...I mean, there was a time _before_ them, right?"

"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."

"So, what was it like... before the gods?"

Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then, Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."

"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So ... even if I failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up _everything,_ right?"

Chiron gave a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. _They_ still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure endless pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."

"Our destiny... assuming we know what that is."

"Relax," Chiron said. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."

"Relax," Percy said. "I'm very relaxed." He did not sound particularly relaxed as he said this.

When he got to the bottom of the hill, he took a look back. Under the pine tree that used to the daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horse-man form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send-off by your typical centaur.

Argus drove out of the countryside and into western Long Island. The highway looked alien to the three of them. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. Percy soon found himself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall. Annabeth surprisingly joined him in this, not that he noticed and the two of them looked like a pair of toddlers as they stared at the world with wide eyes.

"So far so good," Percy told Annabeth. "Ten miles and not a single monster."

She gave an irritated look. "It's bad luck to talk that way, Seaweed Brain."

Whiskers swatted her on the shoulder, "play nice," he said.

"Remind me again, why do you hate me so much?" Percy asked irritably.

"I don't hate you." Annabeth said, Whiskers glared at her and she gave him a look that said, 'I'm trying'.

"Could've fooled me." Percy voiced.

She folded her cap of invisibility. "Look... me and you, we're not expected to be friends, or even get along." Whiskers swatted her on the shoulder again and glared, but she just continued. "Our parents are rivals."

"Why?"

She sighed. "How many reasons do you want? One time my mom caught Poseidon with his girlfriend in Athena's temple, which is _hugely_ disrespectful. Another time, Athena and Poseidon competed to be the patron god for the city of Athens. Your dad created some stupid saltwater spring for his gift. My mom created the olive tree. The people saw that her gift was better, so they named the city after her."

"They must really like olives."

Whiskers laughed, and Annabeth glared at him, but he just ignored it.

"Oh, forget it."

"Now, if she'd invented pizza, _that_ I could understand."

"I said, forget it!"

Whiskers snickered lightly, he then whispered into Grover's ear, the goat-boy looked at the two other campers and giggled slightly. Annabeth gave him a look and he stopped, she then glared at the fox, who sat there innocently, he then gained a thoughtful expression.

"I wonder if they pulled the trap already." He said absentmindedly, in the distance Percy could have sworn he heard something that sounded suspiciously like an entire cabin of children screaming in fear. Annabeth looked at the fox, who gave a look that said, 'pure innocent'.

"What did you do?" She asked the fox, who just looked back at her.

"Why Annie, what are you talking about?" He said, so much innocence in his eyes Percy almost believed him, Grover nervously shifted about in his seat.

"Forget it." Annabeth said, "you better not have caused permanent damage."

"Define permanent." The fox said, his innocent expression becoming a devilish grin that made Percy think they didn't have to go on the quest, they'd already found Hades.

In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at Percy.

Traffic slowed down in Queens. By the time, they got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.

Argus dropped them at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from Percy's mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with a picture of Percy on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY?

He ripped it down before Annabeth and Grover could notice, but Whiskers had seen it already.

Argus unloaded their bags, made sure they got their bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch them as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Percy was looking out with an unreadable expression on his face, in the direction old apartment. Grover shouldered his backpack, gazing down the street in the direction Percy was looking. "You want to know why she married him, Percy?"

Percy stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or something?"

"Just your emotions." He shrugged. "Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"

He nodded, looking at the goat boy in a new light.

"Your mom married Gabe for _you,"_ Grover mentioned. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura…. Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."

"Thanks," Percy said. "Where's the nearest shower?"

"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy, if that makes you feel any better."

It didn't, in fact he looked worse, but he masked that with a grin.

The rain kept coming down. They got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Annabeth was unbelievable. She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. Percy wasn't too bad. Whiskers however beat all of them, any movable part of his body could bounce the sack off it, considering he was a fox it was even more amazing.

The game ended when the apple was tossed toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, their Hacky Sack disappeared- core, stem, and all.

Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Annabeth, Percy and Whiskers were too busy cracking up.

Finally, the bus came. As they stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favourite school cafeteria delicacy- enchiladas.

Whiskers did the same, sniffing about like a hound, though Percy felt the fox wouldn't be too fond of that analogy.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

"I don't know," Grover said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."

Percy was starting to get paranoid too though and he soon started looking over his shoulder, too.

He was relieved when they finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. They stowed their back packs on the luggage rack. Annabeth kept slapping her Yankees cap nervously against her thigh. Whiskers stopped this by sitting in her lap and affectionately nudging her with his nose, the bus driver hadn't seemed to notice Whiskers, if he had he probably would have complained, but the mist was at work.

As the last passengers got on, Annabeth clamped her hand onto Percy's knee.

"Percy."

An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and Percy froze before paling and trembling.

He must have recognised her, but by smell Whiskers knew she was a monster, a fury.

Percy scrunched down in his seat.

Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like the first, same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.

They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.

The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," Percy said, failing to stop trembling. "I thought you said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."

"I said if you're _lucky_ ," Annabeth said. "You're obviously not."

"All three of them," Grover whimpered. _"Di immortales!"_

"It's okay," Annabeth said, obviously thinking hard. "The Furies. The three worst monsters from the Underworld. No problem. No problem. We'll just slip out the windows."

"They don't open," Grover moaned.

"A back exit?" she suggested.

There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, they were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.

"They won't attack us with witnesses around," Percy asked nervously. "Will they?"

"Mortals don't have good eyes," Annabeth reminded. "Their brains can only process what they see through the Mist."

"They'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"

She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on mortals for help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof...?"

They hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.

Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the rest-room."

"So, do I," said the second sister.

"So, do I," said the third sister.

They all started coming down the aisle.

"I've got it," Annabeth said. "Percy, take my hat."

"What?"

"You're the one they want. Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."

"But you guys-"

"There's an outside chance they might not notice us," Annabeth said. "You're a son of one of the Big Three. Your smell might be overpowering."

"I can't just leave you."

"Don't worry about us," Grover said. "Go!"

His hands trembled, but took the Yankees cap and put it on, he disappeared much like Frodo in lord of the rings.

The three companions lost track of him, until the furies stopped, they started sniffing, like they were searching for something. One of them looked to an empty seat and stared for a few seconds.

Then they turned back and continued to make their way towards the fox, goat-boy and demi-god. As they reached them, the old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same, it seemed they couldn't get any uglier, but their bodies had shrivelled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.

The Furies surrounded Grover, Whiskers and Annabeth, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"

The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw _something,_ all right.

"He's not here!" Annabeth yelled. "He's gone!"

The Furies raised their whips, before they could strike though, Whiskers pounced on the nearest one and knocked her back. He wrapped his tail around her neck and grew to the size of a husky, the weight forced the fury to the floor and Whiskers jumped up to the ceiling.

The fury was writhing beneath him, but his tail had become like a noose and he ignored the furies struggles, Grover pelting her with his cans didn't help. All was looking good, until anther fury raised her whip and swung at the fox.

Annabeth screamed, "no!" and launched herself at the fury, grabbing its wrist and pulling it back, the fury struggled but Annabeth had the advantage and pressed it, she whipped out her knife and was about to slice the fury across the throat, but the bus suddenly slammed into the wall of the tunnel.

"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey—whoa!" The passengers were all looking at him as he seemed to be struggling against someone for control of the wheel, someone invisible.

Whiskers kept hold of the fury with his tail and managed to stay stuck to the roof, the result? The fury became a wrecking ball, knocking over anything that got in its way, including the last fury, who had been about to hit Annabeth while she was focused on the other fury. The swinging fury also destroyed the seats they had been sitting in in her trip around the bus.

Annabeth forced herself to her feet and turned around just in time to duck the swinging fury, natural instinct kicked in and she swiped up as it went over her head. A small golden sandstorm was all that remained of the fury, her sisters weren't too happy it seemed if their wails of anger were to be believed.

"Percy, stop!" Whiskers yelled as he jumped onto his next target, unfortunately this one was expecting it and managed to raise her arm to block the incoming ball of fur. Said ball became the size of pony in an instant and her arm buckled at the unexpected weight, he bit down on her arm and pulled with all his might causing the fury to screech in pain before her life was ended by Annabeth who stabbed her right in the chest when her guard fell.

The bus careened forth, Percy apparently not hearing them over the chaos on the bus, the tunnel outside was lit by the sparks of the bus hitting the wall. They careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monster tossed around the bus, cars ploughed aside like bowling pins.

Somehow the driver found an exit as Percy gave him control back to the wheel. They were sent shooting off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barrelling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to the left, the Hudson River to the right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.

Before they hit the water, the breaks were slammed by an invisible force. The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him.

The final Fury regained her balance, she lashed her whip at Annabeth while she waved her knife and yelled in Ancient Greek, telling her to back off. Grover threw tin cans. Whiskers pounced on the fury but the final one seemed to have learned from her sister's mistakes, before the fox could get close, she swung her whip around and caught the fox on the torso. She pulled back with her whip and the fox came towards her, she was about to claw him apart as he came in range, but Annabeth hoped on her back and pulled her away.

Suddenly there was a call from the front of the bus. "Hey!" Percy yelled as he appeared out of thin air.

The final Fury turned still struggling with Annabeth and glared at the son of Poseidon, Whiskers was wrapped up in the flaming whip and was whining painfully Grover tried to pry it off him but only succeeded in burning his hands.

Annabeth raised her knife to strike the Fury, but she noticed this and caught the hand just before it reached her shoulder. She then tightened her grip and the demi-goddess lost her grip, the knife falling to the floor of the bus, the Fury then swung her head back. Annabeth's nose sounded like a packet of uncooked spaghetti as the Furies head made contact and she fell off.

"Perseus Jackson," the Fury said, "you have offended the gods. You shall die."

"I liked you better as a math teacher," Percy told her.

She growled.

Annabeth stood up and tore her gaze to the fox writhing in the confines of the whip, she ran to his side and joined Grover in prying the whip loose but still failed.

Percy took the ballpoint pen out of his pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double-edged sword.

The Fury hesitated, seeming to recognise the blade.

"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."

"Nice try," Percy told her.

Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around the sword handle finally freeing the fox, who was now badly burned.

Percy flinched as the whip wrapped around his swords handle, but he managed not to drop Riptide. Annabeth handed Whiskers to Grover, and lunged at the Fury with her back to her, she wrapped herself around the creature and pinned her arms.

The Fury was trying to get Annabeth off her back. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Annabeth held on while Grover grabbed the burning whip that one of the others left and wrapped it around the Fury's legs, tying her up like a Christmas ham. Finally, they both shoved her backward into the aisle. She tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling.

"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"

" _Braccas meas vescimini_!" Percy yelled.

Thunder shook the bus. Hair rose on the back of their necks.

"Get out!" Annabeth yelled. "Now!" He didn't need any encouragement.

Annabeth grabbed Whiskers in one hand and snatched her knife with the other, before leaving the bus.

They rushed outside and found the other passengers wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!"

A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped a photograph before Percy could recap his sword.

"Our bags!" Grover realized. "We left our-"

 _BOOOOOM_!

The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told them the Fury was far from dead.

"Run!" Annabeth said. "She's calling for reinforcements! We have to get out of here!"

Whiskers moaned in Annabeth's arms, his small form struggling weakly, Annabeth whimpered as she saw this, fear coursing through her veins. They plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind and their enemy with it, but still very much alive, and nothing but darkness ahead, a short sob come from Annabeth, but the others didn't hear.

(With the jinchuuriki)

Beneath the deck the jinchuuriki were tossed about like a salad, they didn't get the chance to get in their seats and buckle up. The boat sank, for a moment they were floating, gravity having no hold on them, it was at this moment the ceiling decided to take the place of the floor and they were firmly pushed against it.

After a few moments they were suddenly thrust into the waiting arms of gravity once more, the regular floor hit them in seconds and they just sat there. It was over.

This trip was very like their original trip. Painful. Yagura had never actually experienced what it was like below deck, the tight space made the passengers act like pinballs if they weren't strapped in. The seats hadn't actually come with straps originally, they had insisted on them, though, after the first trip.

"Is everyone okay?" Roshi asked, groaning under the weight of B.

"Define okay." Utakata moaned as he shifted up a bit.

"Conscious." Roshi replied.

There were a few mumbles of 'yes' and one groan of 'barely.'

"Okay, number off." Roshi said.

"One." Garra said.

"Two." Yugito groaned.

"Three's the captain." Roshi said, "four."

"…"

"Hana?" Roshi asked.

"…"

"Where's Hana?" Roshi asked, "is she okay?"

"She… I didn't see her come in." Fu said.

"Shit, are we parked?" Roshi asked.

"I think so." Yugito replied, "hold on, let me check." She made her way over to the exit, and rapped on the door.

"What if she got left behind?" Fu asked worriedly.

"Then we go back for her." Garra said firmly.

"No one's coming," Yugito said after a minute, "I'm going to open it." No one disagreed, they all wanted to know what happened.

Yugito shoved the latch open and they emerged to the midday sun, the cat jinchuuriki squinted for a minute, "yeah, looks like we got here all-" She froze, her eyes locked onto something outside the boat, outside the other's fields of view.

"What? What is it?" Roshi asked.

"Blood, lots of blood." Yugito replied, "it's everywhere." She hoped onto the deck, managing to avoid the blood that painted it, she was right, there was a lot of blood, and bone, and brain matter. It was like Apollo threw someone from the sun to the deck of the ship.

"What happened?" Fu asked as she flew out, eying the carnage she frowned.

"It looks like something hit the deck, literally." Roshi said, then he frowned, "no, if something hit the ship that hard it would have left some damage, but it looks crushed, and fresh." A frown marred his face, "this looks like whatever this was, was crushed, but it would have to be by high pressure or something, the kind of pressure…" He gasped before looking around desperately. "Where's Hana?"

At the dawning implications behind that question Fu around the ship and found Yagura, she was sitting there, not moving. "It's my fault." She muttered to herself.

"What's your fault?" Fu asked, guardedly, afraid of the answer.

Yagura looked up, gasping at the flying jinchuuriki, "Fu, Hana… she…" She looked down at her hands, "I… I didn't mean to."

Fu grabbed Yagura by the shirt, anger appearing on her face, "What happened?" She asked, her voice hard, the sun seemed to beat down on them.

"Hana, she… the wolf, from earlier, it got her, she… she hit the button, the… I didn't mean to." Yagura said.

Tears appeared in Fu's eyes, she hoisted her up and threw her over the ship, landing on top, she slid off until she landed just in front of the door to the navigation room. The others looked shocked as their eyes turned to Fu, who just hovered above the ship, the sun directly behind her blaring brightly, she looked like a wrathful angel. The sea churned angrily, reacting to seeing one of its daughters hurt.

"Yagura what happened? Where's Hana?" Yugito asked.

"I didn't…" She looked at the blood staining the deck, their siblings took this as their answer.

"No." Roshi said. The others took looks ranging from shock to horror to anger.

"It's her fault." Fu said.

"No, she couldn't…" Garra said.

"I didn't mean to." Yagura sobbed.

A hand suddenly clamped down on Yagura's shoulder, she turned and faced her, Hana was standing behind her, blood dripped from her face, with no clear origin. Her face mask was off, exposing herself to the world, there was a reason she wore a mask.

"You're…" Fu stuttered, "Hana, you're alive!" She flew straight at her and grabbed her in a tight hug, the daughter of Hephaestus looked shocked for a second, before turning and finding her sister. She hugged her back.

"What happened?" Roshi asked.

Yagura looked up and explained:

 _Yagura raised her hand to grab her sister, but she was seconds late, they were submerged but the water revitalised the daughter of the sea. They were fully submerged, but the demi-goddess grabbed her sister and pulled her closer, her mask was torn off her, exposing the reason she hid it from everyone._

 _Hana was always ashamed of her appearance, growing up in a village that hated her for any reason they could didn't help. Her face was misshapen, odd lumps surrounded her jawline, making it look slanted, her nose was similar, the left half was bigger than the right, the opposite of the bigger right jaw. Her eyes weren't slanted or anything, they were the only thing she ever allowed uncovered, hell she only took her hat off around her siblings, even though the hat hid no deformities._

 _Beneath her armour, the rest of her wasn't much better, her skin was red in many places like a bad rash, the rest of her skin was covered in the same lumps that covered her face. Though to a lesser extent, her whole life she had been called out on it, the cruel words of the other children, the harsh adults who screamed 'freak' at the mere sight of her._

 _Her brothers and sisters knew, of course, seven of them had been her only friends at childhood, the only ones to accept her._

 _Then there was Naruto._

 _It had been what she was afraid of when she heard there would be an addition to the family, what if he took one look at her and called her a monster, a freak, a creature, a mistake? He didn't though, the first time she had seen him, he had said she was beautiful. When she got angry and asked why he would joke like that he said he wasn't joking, why he could call a mistake beautiful? He said that she had always been beautiful, she had accepted him, she had cared for him, a monster wouldn't do that. So, she wasn't a monster. He said that she didn't need to hide, she was more beautiful than any of the normal humans._

 _'_ _Beauty is only skin deep.' She remembered hearing, not even the other jinchuuriki had called her beautiful, but this child had._

 _Still she hid from him, from them, still she feared they would laugh at her like so many others, that was why she still wore her armour. Though it was hidden in the mist, her clothes still covered all of the available skin, only leaving her eyes free, most nights she even wore it to bed._

 _Yagura still held her close though. Her sister took her by the hand and hugged her tight, the water was everywhere, but suddenly the two of them were dry._

 _A second passed, Yagura smiled at her sister, Hana smiled back. Then the pain came, Hana clutched her head, pain, everywhere, Yagura kept a grip but fear filled her face, was she too late? Yagura was shielding her from the pressure and the water, but had she saved her too late? They were already quite deep when she had saved her._

 _Suddenly the ship rose once more, the sun breaking through the water and they reached the surface._

 _As soon as they did Hana fell to her knees, Yagura clutched her tightly, kneeling behind her, trying desperately to find out what was wrong._

 _"_ _Why is it so quiet?" Hana said, then she froze, "why can't I hear?"_

 _Yagura stumbled back, as if she were struck, her sister collapsed to the ground, she rushed to her side, she was fine. Her heart was steady and there was no damage. So where was the blood coming from?_

 _Her ears. The daughter of Poseidon found trails of the life-giving liquid coming from her sister's ears, too much, she was terrified, what had she done? Then the daughter of Poseidon collapsed, her breath was coming short, exhaustion over took her, she needed water, her body commanded it, but she couldn't leave her sister._

 _Water from the lake around her seemed to respond to her immediate need and water rose, it pulled her away from her sister and into the lake. She emerged a few seconds later, feeling a better but worse on the inside. She sat on the edge of the ship and realised something:_

"…It was my fault." She finished, "Hana can't hear, and it's my fault."

"I…" Fu looked up from Hana, "I'm sorry for hurting you, I thought that she… I thought Hana was." She gestured to the still bloody deck.

"No, that's the wolf." Yagura said, glaring at a particularly large clump of wolf remains, "He imploded once we reached the bottom."

"Oh, that's a relief." Yugito said, "never was a fan of dogs."

"You're joking now?" Fu asked.

"Sorry, how bad is the damage?" Yugito asked, wincing.

Roshi made his way over to Hana, and looked at her ears, "too much blood. I can't see anything, and I'm no doctor, but that seems like a bad thing."

"Doctor…" Fu muttered, "Fu, your dad's the god of medicine, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Fu brightened up, "I'll go up and chat with him."

She flew up to the sun, closing in on the glowing orb, one minute she was flying the next she was suddenly in her father's car.

"Hey sweetie," Apollo said, not even looking around from the steering wheel. "I don't want to sound ungrateful, but you can't come here every day, though dad's busy, he'll eventually notice."

"Dad, I need your help." Fu said.

"With your friends hearing?" The god asked.

"Yeah, you were watching?" Apollo nodded.

"Of course, I was worried you were going to get in a fight with your sister, I was on your side, I didn't see what happened underwater, not even sunlight reaches that deep."

"Dad, can you heal her?" Fu asked.

"No." Fu looked shocked at her father's answer.

"B-but-"

"I'm sorry, but we can't interfere directly with mortal affairs."

"But she needs help, she can't hear, she's in pain."

"Ruptured ear drum, your sister Yagura was lucky to save her when she did, a second longer her eyes would have been pushed to the back of her skull and she would have had a heart attack. In fact, she's lucky to get off with what she got. Most people would have been crushed immediately."

"Dad, she needs help, you can help her!"

"No I can't. No direct interference, I can't get involved, it's one thing to bend a law like I'm doing now, it's another to break it and heal someone."

"But yesterday-"

"I gave you a present and showed you a few chords, I could only do that much because you were in my domain. I can't heal her, I'm sorry."

Tears pricked her vision, "why? Why can't you make one exception?"

"Because those rules are there for a reason, it is dangerous for us to interfere. If I make one exception for you then what's to stop me from making an exception again?"

"Please, for me." Fu pleaded.

"I'm sorry, but I can't interfere directly."

"You're the only one who can."

"No, I'm not, one of my kids could." He paused for a minute before speaking again. "Listen to me very carefully, I cannot interfere directly, yesterday when I taught you, that wasn't me directly helping." He turned around and looked at her, as he had a small smile on his face.

"But I – oh." She finally figured out what he was getting at, "but I can't… I've never."

"Yes but you can learn. If you have the right teacher." He hopped out of the seat and turned to look at her. "So, I can tell you have a question, what is it?"

"Will… will you teach me?"

"Finally." He turned around and smirked at the sky in triumph, "dad found out I was talking to you, someone must have told him, I don't know who, but someone must have seen you or something. Anyway, dad told me I can't offer to teach any of my kids directly. I needed you to ask me, so, I won't teach you everything, but you should be able to repair the tissue damage, it will take a while, a few days of repeated healing should help."

"Really?" Fu asked.

"Yeah, if you were one of my more medically inclined kids you could probably heal it at once, but your talents lie elsewhere."

(With the others)

Fu had been gone for a while, while she had been gone, the others had been trying to help Hana, cleaning up the blood and gathering her armour, bits of it had fallen apart in the rush of water.

Unfortunately, for her, the rest of them refused to let anything cover her face, or head, they said that they didn't want to damage anything else, or tried to, she couldn't hear them, so they tried to sign out what they meant. She was uncomfortable without her mask on, especially with everyone casting glances to her, she told herself it wasn't because of her looks, but memories of her childhood made her paranoid.

Yagura had been cleaning the deck of the remains of the wolf, she refused to look at Hana, the reminder of her failure. The daughter of Poseidon had simply just set to work cleaning the ship, looking down the whole time, not even able to look her siblings in the eye.

The others were silent, they all sat around the ship, taking vigil, the last monster attack had left their sister deaf, they would not let anything else happen.

After what felt like an eternity, Fu was back on the ship, before anyone could say anything to her, she was at Hana's side. Her hands glowed in a golden light and she placed them gently on her sister's ears, she started to hum quietly, silence reigned onboard the ship. The jinchuuriki simply watched their sister as she healed the daughter of Hephaestus, even Yagura who moments before couldn't look at her was watching in awe.

Finally, Fu finished, she stood up and looked at her sister, then fell backwards, unconscious.

Hana reacted quickly though, and caught the daughter of the sun before she hit the ground, she then lifted her up and brought her down below deck. The others were still frozen, they could only guess that their sister had been healed. When she came back up the others crowed around her, except Yagura, who stayed back.

Hana ignored the others and made her way over to the daughter of Poseidon, she just looked down, afraid of what the host of the five tails would say.

"Yagura." Hana said, a little too loudly her hearing wasn't back yet it seemed, "Fu is fixing me up, but she can only heal a little at a time, I can hear, but badly, I'll be healed in a week." She brought a large hand up and gently lifted her sisters chin up, so she looked her in the eye. "None of this is your fault. It is mine, I should have made sure the wolf was down. Everything that happened was my fault." Before she could respond Hana continued, "but you save me, I'd be dead if it weren't for you. Thank you."

She then hugged the smaller demi-god, tears fell from Yagura's eyes as she was forgiven.


	9. Chapter 9

Percy, Grover and Annabeth were taking a nice stroll in the woods after a vicious attack by all three furies. Whiskers was still in Annabeth's arms and he wasn't looking much better, he was still unconscious but was twitching like someone was poking him. His fur had blackened in places and along the back there was a patch that was missing completely, there was no damage to his face though and his legs were relatively fine. His tail though, it looked like it would be painful to move and was hanging limply out of Annabeth's reach.

Grover was shivering and braying, his big goat eyes turned slit-pupiled and full of terror. "Three Kindly Ones. All three at once."

Percy was pretty much in shock, his ears were ringing, and his hand was stiff, but Annabeth kept pulling them along, saying: "Come on! Whiskers needs medical attention."

Eventually Percy pulled against her and stopped her, "Where are we going, we can't just walk to Hades. All our money was back there," Percy reminded her. "Our food and clothes. Everything."

"Well, maybe if you hadn't decided to jump into the fight-"

"What did you want me to do? Let you get killed?"

"You didn't need to protect me, Percy. I would've been fine. We were handling it well. If you hadn't then Whiskers…" She looked down at the fox who was now shivering. She took off her jacket and wrapped it around the fox, he didn't look much better, but he stopped shivering.

"Wow, that wasn't Percy's fault." Grover defended his friend, "he just tried to help."

"Shut up, it's his fault Whiskers is like this!" Percy looked down at Annabeth's accusation, "we would have been fine without him."

"Sliced like sandwich bread," Grover put in, "but fine."

"Shut up, goat boy," said Annabeth, much quieter, but somehow more terrifying.

Grover brayed mournfully. "Tin cans...a perfectly good bag of tin cans."

They sloshed across mushy ground, through nasty twisted trees that smelled like sour laundry.

After a few minutes, Annabeth fell into line next to me. "Look, I..." Her voice faltered. "I appreciate your coming back for us, okay? That was really brave. It wasn't your fault Whiskers got hurt." She muttered too quietly for him to hear, "it was mine."

"We're a team, right?"

"A team," she muttered, sounding regretful. She was silent for a few more steps. "It's just that if you died... aside from the fact that it would really suck for you, it would mean the quest was over. This may be my only chance to see the real world."

"You'd give up Whiskers for-"

Annabeth suddenly had her knife pointed at his throat, "don't finish that sentence." Percy could now see the tears in her eyes, threatening to spill, "He'll be fine, he'll be back on his feet in a few days." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

The thunderstorm had finally let up. The city glow faded behind them, leaving them in almost total darkness. The three of them walked slower, the dim glow of the bolts of moonlight that broke through the canopy, they said nothing for a while, the noises of the wildlife overpowering any chance of conversation, until Percy broke the forests song.

"You haven't left Camp Half-Blood since you were seven?"

"No... only short field trips. My dad-"

"The history professor."

"Yeah. It didn't work out for me living at home. I mean, Camp Half-Blood _is_ my home." She was rushing her words out now, as if she were afraid somebody might try to stop her.

"At camp, you train and train. And that's all cool and everything, but the real world is where the monsters are. That's where you learn whether you're any good or not."

To anyone who could read people well, they would've heard the doubt in her voice.

"You're pretty good with that knife," Percy said.

"You think so?"

"Anybody who can piggyback-ride a Fury is okay by me."

Through the darkness Annabeth smiled to herself.

"You know," she said, "maybe I should tell you... Something funny back on the bus..."

Whatever she wanted to say was interrupted by a shrill _toot-toot-toot,_ like the sound of an owl being tortured.

"Hey, my reed pipes still work!" Grover cried.

"If I could just remember a 'find path' song, we could get out of these woods!"

While the three of them were distracted by the sound of the pipes, some leaves rustled above them and separated, allowing a beam of moonlight to break through the sea of green. As luck would have it, the silver light of the moon seemed to be attracted to the only other silver object in the forest. Whiskers fur ignited in a silver light as the moonlight struck true, this should have alerted his companions, but by chance, the only part of him uncovered was his face, so not much light was given off by him.

Beneath the jacket, his wounds started to heal themselves, the fur re-grew, and the burned fur bled to silver. The process was slow, but everywhere he went, the moonbeams seemed to find him, Annabeth would have commented on this strange phenomenon except the party was distracted by the appearance of a neon sign and the smell of food.

Fried, greasy, excellent food, Grover cringed at the smell, but Percy grinned, he hadn't had any fried food since he arrived on Half-Blood Hill, they lived on grapes, bread, cheese, and extra-lean-cut nymph-prepared barbecue. As for Annabeth, well, it had been years since she had had any decent grease coated burgers, her stomach growled at her, commanding her to take this opportunity.

They kept walking until they saw a deserted two-lane road through the trees. On the other side was a closed-down gas station, a tattered billboard for a 1990s movie, and one open business, which was the source of the neon light and the good smell.

It wasn't a fast-food restaurant like they'd hoped. It was one of those weird roadside curio shops that sell lawn flamingos and wooden Indians and cement grizzly bears and stuff like that. The main building was a long, low warehouse, surrounded by acres of statuary. The neon sign above the gate was murder on the poor dyslexic demi-gods. To those poor demi-gods, it looked like: _ATNYU MES GDERAN GOMEN MEPROUIM._

"What the heck does that say?" Percy asked.

"I don't know," Annabeth said. Poor girl cursed the disorder, so many books she hadn't read because of it.

Grover translated: "Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium."

Flanking the entrance, as advertised, were two cement garden gnomes, ugly bearded little runts, smiling and waving, as if they were about to get their picture taken.

Percy crossed the street, his nose and stomach guiding him to the nearest source of food.

"Hey..." Grover warned.

"The lights are on inside," Annabeth said. "Maybe it's open. The owner might have medical supplies, they might even have a-"

"Snack bar," Percy said wistfully.

Annabeth frowned at being interrupted, before thinking it over and agreeing. "Snack bar."

"Are you two crazy?" Grover said. "This place is weird."

He was promptly ignored by the 'much wiser' demi-gods, or rather their stomachs.

The front lot was a forest of statues: cement animals, cement children, even a cement satyr playing the pipes, which gave Grover the creeps.

 _"Bla-ha-ha!"_ he bleated. "Looks like my Uncle Ferdinand!"

They stopped at the warehouse door.

"Don't knock," Grover pleaded. "I smell monsters."

"Your nose is clogged up from the Furies," Annabeth told him.

"All I smell is burgers. Aren't you hungry?"

"Meat!" he said scornfully. "I'm a vegetarian."

"You eat cheese enchiladas and aluminium cans," he was reminded by the child of the sea god.

"Those are vegetables. Come on. Let's leave. These statues are... looking at me."

Then the door creaked open, and standing in front of them was a tall Middle Eastern woman, at least, she looked like she was Middle Eastern, because she wore a long black gown that covered everything but her hands, and her head was completely veiled. Her eyes glinted behind a curtain of black gauze, but that was about all they could make out. Her coffee-coloured hands looked old, but well-manicured and elegant, so

Her accent sounded vaguely Middle Eastern, too. She said, "Children, it is too late to be out all alone. Where are your parents?"

"They're... um..." Annabeth started to say.

"We're orphans," Percy said, thinking rapidly.

"Orphans?" the woman said. The word sounded alien in her mouth. "But, my dears! Surely not!"

"We got separated from our caravan," he said. "Our circus caravan. The ringmaster told us to meet him at the gas station if we got lost, but he may have forgotten, or maybe he meant a different gas station. Anyway, we're lost. Is that food I smell?" Maybe he was thinking too rapidly, the lie he wove was so unbelievable that the others were sure no one would actually fall for it, Annabeth was especially insulted, being the daughter of the goddess of wisdom, it almost physically hurt to hear such a lie.

"Oh, my dears," the woman said. "You must come in, poor children. I am Aunty Em. Go straight through to the back of the warehouse, please. There is a dining area."

They thanked her and went inside, absentmindedly praying to whatever deity oversaw gullibility.

Annabeth muttered, "Circus caravan?"

"Always have a strategy, right?"

"Your head is full of kelp."

The warehouse was filled with more statues, people in all different poses, wearing all different outfits and with different expressions on their faces. Percy was thinking you'd have to have a pretty huge garden to fit even one of these statues, because they were all life-size. But he mostly thought about food.

Sure, they were fools for walking into a strange lady's shop like that just because they were hungry, but they do impulsive stuff sometimes. It comes with having ADHD. Plus, the burgers smelt good. The aroma was like laughing gas in the dentist's chair, it made everything else go away.

Percy barely noticed Grover's nervous whimpers, or the way the statues' eyes seemed to follow their every move, or the fact that Aunty Em had locked the door behind them.

All he cared about was finding the dining area. And sure enough, there it was at the back of the warehouse, a fast-food counter with a grill, a soda fountain, a pretzel heater, and a nacho cheese dispenser. Everything you could want, plus a few steel picnic tables out front.

"Please, sit down," Aunty Em said.

"Awesome," Percy said at the sight.

"Um," Grover said reluctantly, "we don't have any money, ma'am."

Before Percy could jab him in the ribs, Aunty Em said, "No, no, children. No money. This is a special case, yes? It is my treat, for such nice orphans."

"Thank you, ma'am," Annabeth said.

Aunty Em stiffened, as if Annabeth had done something wrong, but then the old woman relaxed just as quickly, so it must've been in their imagination.

"Quite all right, Annabeth," she said. "You have such beautiful grey eyes, child." Only later did they wonder how she knew Annabeth's name, even though they had never introduced ourselves.

The hostess disappeared behind the snack counter and started cooking. Before they knew it, she'd brought plastic trays heaped with double cheeseburgers, vanilla shakes, and XXL servings of French fries.

Before the, began eating Annabeth seemed to remember the position her best friend was in, a moment of guilt passed through her before she spoke up. "Err, do you have any medical equipment? Our frie – pet was hurt a while ago, he has a few burns on him."

"Why, how did that happen."

"Err…" Annabeth blanked, it was if there was a veil blocking of her thought processes, but Percy spoke up.

"Grover was practicing his fire eating for the circus." Grover chocked a bit and bleated nervously, but Auntie Em didn't bat an eye.

"Of course," She said like she'd heard the same thing happen many times before, "why don't you give me the poor dear, I have some burn ointments in the back, I'll take care of him." She held out her arms, Annabeth looked torn.

"Auntie Em, could I come with you, I could help with-"

"Nonsense, child." She sounded almost angry for a second, but then calmed down, "you three enjoy your meal, you poor darlings look starved, don't worry, I'll take good care of him." Annabeth looked ready to argue but Percy interrupted her.

"She's right, we're starving," he was trying to subtly tell her 'shut up and give the woman the fox, I need me some burgers.'

"Fine," she handed the bundle to Auntie Em, who looked like she had won the lottery, she quickly made her way out of sight of the questers, who dug into the food.

Percy was halfway through his burger before he remembered to breathe.

Annabeth slurped her shake.

Grover picked at the fries, and eyed the tray's waxed paper liner as if he might go for that, but he still looked too nervous to eat.

None of them noticed that Auntie Em came back, or that she was suspiciously missing a fox, but she sat there watching them.

"What's that hissing noise?" Grover finally asked.

The others listened, but didn't hear anything. Annabeth shook her head.

"Hissing?" Aunty Em asked. "Perhaps you hear the deep-fryer oil. You have keen ears, Grover."

"I take vitamins. For my ears."

"That's admirable," she said. "But please, relax."

Aunty Em ate nothing. She hadn't taken off her head dress, even to cook, and now she sat forward and interlaced her fingers watching them eat like they were the specimens in her experiment. For some reason, it brought to mind the story of Hansel and Gretel, the witch who fed them only to fatten Hansel up. It was a little unsettling, having someone stare at them when they couldn't see her face, but Percy was feeling satisfied after the burger, and a little sleepy, and figured the least they could do was try to make small talk with their hostess.

"So, you sell gnomes," he said, trying to sound interested, but coming across as tired.

"Oh, yes," Aunty Em said. "And animals. And people. Anything for the garden. Custom orders. Statuary is very popular, you know."

"A lot of business on this road?"

"Not so much, no. Since the highway was built... most cars, they do not go this way now. I must cherish every customer I get."

Percy turned looking as if he were looking for a predator, but he only found a statue of a young girl holding an Easter basket. The detail was incredible, much better than you see in most garden statues. But something was wrong with her face. It looked as if she were startled, or even terrified.

"Ah," Aunty Em said sadly. "You notice some of my creations do not turn out well. They are marred. They do not sell. The face is the hardest to get right. Always the face."

"You make these statues yourself?" Percy asked, slightly amazed, especially considering the sheer number of statues around them.

"Oh, yes. Once upon a time, I had two sisters to help me in the business, but they have passed on, and Aunty Em is alone. I have only my statues. This is why I make them, you see. They are my company." The sadness in her voice sounded so deep and so real that Percy began to feel sorry for her.

Annabeth had stopped eating. She sat forward and said, almost nervously, "Two sisters?"

"It's a terrible story," Aunty Em said. "Not one for children, really. You see, Annabeth, a bad woman was jealous of me, long ago, when I was young. I had a... a boyfriend, you know, and this bad woman was determined to break us apart. She caused a terrible accident. My sisters stayed by me. They shared my bad fortune as long as they could, but eventually they passed on. They faded away. I alone have survived, but at a price. Such a price."

Percy's eyelids drooped, his full stomach making him sleepy, Annabeth however looked horrified, joining Grover in his look of terror.

"Percy?" Annabeth was shaking him to get his attention. "Maybe we should go. I mean, the ringmaster will be waiting." She suddenly snapped her head to Auntie Em, a scowl on her face, but a twinge of fear was hidden in her eyes. "Where is Whiskers?" She sounded threatening as she looked at the woman, Percy looked confused, Grover had begun eating the waxed paper off the tray now, but if Aunty Em found that strange, she didn't say anything.

"Such beautiful grey eyes," Aunty Em told Annabeth again, ignoring her question. "My, yes, it has been a long time since I've seen grey eyes like those."

She reached out as if to stroke Annabeth's cheek, but Annabeth stood up abruptly, she slammed her hands down on the table.

"Where is he?" She hissed.

"Do not worry about your pet," Auntie Em's snapped, her voice sounding like it could freeze over one of the furnaces at camp, but again it became softer, "he is just resting, it is best not to interrupt him while he rests, it would be best if you stayed for a while. After all, we wouldn't want your friend getting hurt," she paused, sparring a glance to the still out of it Percy, "any more than he already is."

Annabeth shook, her face was red with anger, something that none of them had seen, before she relaxed, a calculating glare replacing the anger. Her eyes were like daggers, the darted about, seeming to take in every minute detail about the room, Auntie Em and the statues. They moved far faster than any of the others could even track, after a few seconds it looked like she had scanned the whole room, she sat back down. "Fine," she said, "let's stay for a while."

Grover shifted uneasily in his seat, Percy just starred at Annabeth in confusion, his eyes as glazed over as a doughnut. They sat there in silence, none of them speaking, all of them felt the tension, except for Percy, who only felt full.

"Now, I'm sure I can sort out some arrangements for you to sleep, but first, how about a picture?" Aunty Em asked, even under the veil they could still see the smirk. "I so rarely get to be with children, won't you at least sit for a pose?"

"A pose?" Annabeth asked no emotion in her voice.

"A photograph. I will use it to model a new statue set. Children are so popular, you see. Everyone loves children."

Before Annabeth could reply, Percy spoke up. "Sure, we can," he said, he ignored the glare Annabeth gave him, something in the food must have messed with his common sense. "It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?"

"Yes, Annabeth," the woman purred. "No harm."

As they rose from their seats Auntie Em turned to face Percy, Annabeth slowly snuck her knife out of her sleeve and had her hat at the ready. She gestured to Grover, pointing to Percy and signing something, he seemed to get the message, as Aunty Em directed them to a park bench next to satyr, Annabeth shifted out of her field of view completely. She put her cap on and disappeared from sight, Auntie Em gave no indication of seeing her, and focused on Percy.

"Now," she said, "I'll just position you correctly. The young girl…. Where has she disappeared to?" The second she said this she screamed as a knife pierced her abdomen, before vanishing, she twisted around, unable to see the attacker.

"Where is he?" Annabeth's cold voice came from nowhere.

Percy seemed to awaken from his trance, "Annabeth, what are you doing?" He said.

"Shut up Percy!" She snapped, "she's a monster, isn't that right Medusa." She spat the name like it were poison.

"Daughter of Athena." She hissed, literally, as she spoke dozens of snakes seemed to hiss in the background, "you will regret this, I will crush your statue to dust!" She reached for her veil, but a knife pierced her hand and pinned it to her shoulder, she hissed, the knife vanished once more, only becoming visible as it tore through her flesh.

"Wow… Medusa?" Percy questioned.

"Percy," The monster cried, "please, stop her, her mother cursed me, I'm not your enemy." She wailed, her voice sounding sweet once more, like a frail old woman. Percy shook his head, she was a monster.

"No, you're a-" He was interrupted by the angry daughter of Athena.

"Where is Whiskers?!" Annabeth yelled once more, her voice moving across the room to fast for anyone to track.

"Your little pet won't be bothering anyone anymore." Medusa hissed, a choir of snakes hissed in laughter, "there have been rumours of him, all over the country, the silver fox. Hunting down monsters, killing us, by the hundreds, but I have put an end to him."

"You – you're lying!" Annabeth yelled, her calm composure broken, and that was all the monster needed.

Quicker than the daughter of Athena could move, she removed her veil, it fell to the ground, Grover tackled Percy to the ground, so he stopped looking at the deadly foe. Annabeth was still invisible, so the monster couldn't find her, so she targeted the son of Poseidon.

"Run!" Grover bleated. As raced across the gravel, yelling, _"Maia!"_ to kick-start his flying sneakers.

Percy couldn't move as the monster moved closer, he sat there staring at Aunty the creatures gnarled claws, and finally freed himself completely from the trance the old woman had put him in.

"Such a pity to destroy a handsome young face," she said to him soothingly. "Stay with me, Percy. All you have to do is look up."

He fought the urge to obey. Instead looked to one side and saw one of those glass spheres people put in gardens, a gazing ball. He could see Aunty Em's dark reflection in the orange glass; her headdress was gone, revealing her face as a shimmering pale circle. Her hair was moving, writhing like serpents.

"The Grey-Eyed One did this to me, Percy," Medusa said, and she didn't sound anything like a monster. Her voice inviting him to look up, to sympathize with a poor old grandmother. "Annabeth's mother, the cursed Athena, turned me from a beautiful woman into this."

"Don't listen to her!" Annabeth's voice shouted, somewhere in the statuary. "Run, Percy!"

"Silence!" Medusa snarled. Then her voice modulated back to a comforting purr. "You see why I must destroy the girl, Percy. She is my enemy's daughter. I shall crush her statue to dust. But you, dear Percy, you need not suffer."

"No," he muttered, trying to make his legs move, a bad thought crossed his mind, "what did you do to Whiskers?" He asked, his voice cracking slightly, he had heard what she said, but chose not to believe

"That little pest!" She snarled, her voice once more matching her appearance, "he has slaughtered my kind for too long. Rumours have spread throughout the underworld of him. The silver menace that has destroyed so many monsters, almost as bad as those blasted hunters." She snarled, before a happy note appeared in her voice, "I'd listened to the rumours, whispers, they say he can take on some of the strongest monsters, yet here he is, you brought him right into my lap, gift wrapped even. Oh, I simply couldn't resist, such a trophy, I think I'll keep him, he'll make an excellent ornament."

Annabeth had had enough, as the woman spoke she just got angrier and angrier, this monster had… no, he had to be alive. Whiskers wouldn't be killed by this creature, she tried to drown out the fear that when was speaking the truth, but she couldn't drown out the guilt, she had handed him over to her. Her friend, if he was dead, it would be all her fault.

The final comment about him being an ornament was the straw that broke the camel's back, she ran at the monster and aimed her knife at her, aiming to simply stab her in her black heart, but that was what the monster wanted. The monster moved out of the way at the last minute and Annabeth nearly tripped stopping herself from falling and stabbing Percy, Medusa snapped her hand out at the empty air that was Annabeth, and caught the demi-goddess by the throat.

Her cap flew off and Annabeth came back into focus, her eyes closed, her face reddening as she was choked, Medusa chuckled.

"I was once a priestess of your mothers, she does not hire fools. Apparently, she only births them." Annabeth kicked out desperately, "now, there are only two ways for this to end, you suffocate and die, or you open your eyes and… well, you know the rest." She turned down to Percy, her toxic eyes softening just a bit, "why don't you decide Percy dear, do you think I should choke your friend to death, or turn her to stone and crush her."

"Let her go." He said, he slowly inched his hand towards Riptide.

"Ah, ah, ah." She said, "hands where I can see them, then preferably eyes."

"Go… to… hell…" Annabeth chocked out.

"Been there, now why don't you shut up while I chat to Percy. I'll keep you alive until he decides what to do with you" Her grip shifted so that she was now holding her by the front of her shirt, but her claws were poised right at her throat. Annabeth swallowed deep mouthfuls of oxygen, her face becoming a normal colour.

"Do you really want to help the gods?" Medusa asked. "Do you understand what awaits you on this foolish quest, Percy? What will happen if you reach the Underworld? Do not be a pawn of the Olympians, my dear. You would be better off as a statue. Less pain. Less pain."

As she finished Annabeth muttered something, "shut up child, or have you decided to become a statue?" Medusa queried.

"Grover now!" Annabeth yelled, the satyr had been sneaking up on the monster, slowly, he had been prepared to run when Annabeth was going to choke, so he was in no rush as she monologued. He followed Annabeth's plan and kicked her in the back of her knee causing and in that same movement pulled something onto her head. Annabeth struck, her knife going out like a cobra and cutting through the monster's right arm, the one holding her, severing it. At that exact moment the monster disappeared from sight, but she certainly made noise, she wailed on the ground, green blood appearing all over the ground.

Annabeth glared at the sight, "Athena does not make fools, and her staff look like they're lacking in that department."

"Daughter of Athena!" She hissed, some of the still very wet ooze shifted, moving to where her head would be, but Annabeth was quicker, she was suddenly on top of the invisible monster, her dagger stabbing into nothing, but the green blood begged to differ. She cut through something, more blood appearing, before finally and arm appeared. Medusa only wailed louder.

"Now, you're going to shut up." The daughter of Athena said quietly, her voice only a whisper, but the monster's cries dropped to whimpers, "now tell me where Whiskers is."

"He's in the underworld by now." She hissed, Annabeth jabbed at something behind her and more blood appeared, she dug down and made a sawing motion before a leg appeared.

"You're running out of limbs, no tell me where my fox is." Medusa whimpered some more but staid quiet. Annabeth raised her knife once more.

"Annabeth, stop!" Percy said, grabbing the knife before she could stab down again, "this is not you."

"Let go of me Percy." She whispered in the same tone as she threatened the gorgon.

"Annabeth, you need to calm down, okay, we will find him, just don't do this." He turned to Grover, "you can smell him?" He asked, a pleading look in his eyes.

"Not really," he admitted and bleated at the look from Percy, "but I can smell Annabeth's jacket. It still has her scent on it."

"Go." Percy said, he glanced back to Annabeth, "find him quickly."

He left, and Percy helped Annabeth up, he grabbed Medusa and pulled her to her feet… foot, and brought her to the bench, tossing her carelessly onto it, she moaned. Percy glanced around at the statues, his eyes fell to a small child, barely four, she was running towards another statue, a young woman, with a horrified expression on her face, he scowled at the ground.

"Thank you, son of Poseidon, you look a lot like your father, he and I-"

Percy interrupted her, "shut up, I don't want to hear it." He took off his jacket and tied it around the monster, pinning her to the bench, she may be missing three limbs, but it didn't hurt to be cautious.

Annabeth sat to the side, glaring at nothing, Percy made his way over to her, making sure to keep an eye on the gorgon, it looked strange to have a floating jacket wrapped around seemingly nothing, but he was becoming de-sensitised to the strangeness. He put a hand to her shoulder in a comforting manor.

"He'll be fine." Percy promised.

Annabeth turned to him instead of the anger he had been expecting, fear coated her face, "but what if she wasn't lying, what if he really is…" She turned away again, wiping away tears before they could form.

"She was lying, I know it. Whiskers has to be fine." He turned her around and looked her in the eye. "Trust me on this."

Just then, Grover came back, he was carrying a jacket, an empty jacket.

"Where is he?" Percy asked, Grover looked down.

"No." Annabeth said, then she turned to look at Medusa who was silent, "what did you do to him?"

"I…" She trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words, but Annabeth wasn't having it. She stalked over to the monster, knife at the ready, "wait he is alive, I swear, I didn't do anything to harm him!" She yelled, "it was a bluff!"

Annabeth wasn't having any of it, she was just about to bring her knife down again, when Percy once again stopped her, this time she nearly tore his wrist off, "wait!" He said.

"No, she killed him, she will suffer." She said simply.

"No, maybe she knows where he is." Percy said.

"I will not trust her." She snarled.

"Please, I sweat on the Styx I didn't hurt him!" She yelled, thunder rumbled, and Annabeth froze.

"Where is he?" She asked, hope creeping onto her face.

"I don't know." She said, "please, I have done nothing." Before she could finish her body appeared and there was a splatting noise as a puddle of blood appeared just to the side of the body. The body dissolved and Percy re-capped Riptide, he turned back to the two other occupants.

"Why did you do that?" Annabeth asked, Percy glanced around at all the other statues.

"She needed to die," he glanced down at her knife, "I put her out of her misery," a small amount of fear creeped onto his face, and Annabeth realised he was actually afraid of her.

She looked at where the corpse had been, there was green blood everywhere, now that the initial rage was gone she felt horrified at her actions. When she looked at Percy again he flinched slightly, barely noticeably, but she was a daughter of Athena, she was trained to pick up on everything, "I… Percy I…"

She trailed off as she caught sight of something behind the son of Poseidon

"Hey," their vulpine friend said with a grin, "so… did you guys eat without me?"

Annabeth was already running towards him, the fox looked confused for a second but accepted it. Grover looked at the fox in surprise which faded to relief and Percy just felt happy.

"Whiskers!" Annabeth said, hugging him tightly, "I'm so sorry, it's all my fault." She said, and if Percy wasn't mistaken tears were dripping onto the fox.

"Hey, Annie, it's ok." He paused for a moment, "why are you sorry? Also, where are we, and why is there so much green paint everywhere."

Annabeth glanced at the bench, the fox was right, it looked like someone had just thrown buckets of paint at it and hoped for the best.

"Nothing…" Annabeth went over to the bench and grabbed something invisible, "all of you close your eyes." She said and they all did, Percy and Grover because they could guess what they would see and Whiskers because he trusted her.

The hat appeared in her hand, along with the head, she grabbed the shawl from before and wrapped it up tight, then setting it back on the bench, she looked at her hat and found that there were a few green spots, but otherwise it seemed fine, "you can look now." Then she glanced back to the head, "now what do we do with this?"

"Why didn't it disappear with the body?" Percy asked.

"It's a spoil of war." Annabeth said, "it can still be used. But I don't fancy lugging a head around for the rest of the quest."

"Head? What did I miss?" Whiskers asked.

"Not much," Percy said, "where were you, we sent Grover to look for you, but you were gone?"

Whiskers blushed slightly, but it was hidden behind his fur, "I think I went sleepwalking." He said, the others looked confused, but it was the truth, while his body was still slightly burned, he had started to move, when he woke up, he was outside, in a small clearing bathed in moonlight. He had sniffed out Annabeth's scent and followed it to the emporium.

Percy looked like he wanted more, but Whiskers stomach growled, he winced, "let's go back to where the food was, Whiskers looks like he could do with something to eat."

As they walked back, Whiskers forced them to fill him in on what had happened, he was a bit annoyed at their stupidity but after a short lecture he said he was just happy to be alive. They found some old plastic grocery bags behind the snack counter and double-wrapped Medusa's head. They then plopped it on the table where they'd eaten dinner and sat around it, too exhausted to speak.

Finally, Percy said, "So we have Athena to thank for this monster?"

Annabeth flashed him an irritated look. "Your dad, actually. Don't you remember? Medusa was Poseidon's girlfriend. They decided to meet in my mother's temple. That's why Athena turned her into a monster. Medusa and her two sisters who had helped her get into the temple, they became the three gorgons. That's why Medusa wanted to slice me up, but she wanted to preserve you as a nice statue. She's still sweet on your dad. You probably reminded her of him."

Percy blushed like a tomato, then he was tinged green, like he wasn't ripe yet. "Oh, so now it's _my_ fault we met Medusa."

Annabeth straightened. In a bad imitation of his voice, she said: "'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'"

"Forget it," he said. "You're impossible."

"You're insufferable."

"You're-"

"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even _get_ migraines. What are we going to do with the head?"

"We could mess some-" Whiskers began but a look from Annabeth silenced him.

Percy stared at the thing. One little snake was hanging out of a hole in the plastic. The words printed on the side of the bag said: WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS! His gaze turned to a glare as he then had a strange glint in his eyes

He stood up. "I'll be back."

"Percy," Annabeth called after him. "What are you-"

He searched the back of the warehouse until he found Medusa's office. Her account book showed her six most recent sales, all shipments to the Underworld to decorate Hades and Persephone's garden.

According to one freight bill, the Underworld's billing address was DOA Recording Studios, West Hollywood, California. He folded up the bill and stuffed it in his pocket.

In the cash register he found twenty dollars, a few golden drachmas, and some packing slips for Hermes Overnight Express, each with a little leather bag attached for coins. He rummaged around the rest of the office until he found the right-size box.

He went back to the picnic table, packed up Medusa's head, and filled out a delivery slip:

 _The Gods_

 _Mount Olympus_

 _600th Floor,_

 _Empire State Building_

 _New York, NY_

 _With best wishes,_

 _PERCY JACKSON_

"They're not going to like that," Grover warned. "They'll think you're impertinent."

He poured some golden drachmas in the pouch. As soon as he closed it, there was a sound like a cash register. The package floated off the table and disappeared with a _pop!_

"I _am_ impertinent," Percy said.

Whiskers was on the floor laughing his head off, "I think I'm starting to like you." He said between laughter.

Percy looked at Annabeth, daring her to criticize. She didn't. She seemed resigned to the fact that Percy now had a major talent for ticking off the gods.

"Come on," she muttered. "We need a new plan."

(With the jinchuuriki)

After Fu woke up, she had been told that Hana's hearing had started getting better, she spoke to loudly and complained about a buzzing, but that was to be expected. As soon as she woke up, she told the others that they would need to keep doing that at least once a day for the next week. During that time Hana would be unable to do anything to damage the work she was doing, which meant they would be staying here for a while.

So, they decided to set up camp, Fu and Hana were confined to the ship, until both were well enough. Fu kept collapsing after exhausting herself with the healing, and Hana was still partially deaf. The others decided to take shifts guarding the ship, two would stay with the ship while the other four would go into town. They made a rota and all.

For now, though, Hana was on deck, watching the people on the shore pass by without batting an eye at the yacht in the lake. None of them seemed to notice it, the jinchuuriki remembered being told about the mist of this world, how it shielded mortal, and in some cases demigod, minds from the world of the gods. At first, she hadn't believed it, how could anyone ignore the monsters roaming about, or the nymphs swimming around. It wasn't until she saw how the mortals would just ignore it, sometimes they would frown at a hellhound, like they knew there was something wrong with it, but most times they simply acted like it was normal.

She wondered if maybe it was the same on the elemental nations, maybe there were gods there, monsters hidden in plain sight, a supernatural force keeping even the most talented ninjas out of the know. Then she realised, there was, there were monsters in plain sight, the humans, ninja, they were the monsters. They tried to hide it, but they were monsters, they had hated her and her family because they held the bijuu, but they didn't have a choice in that. They judged the bijuu, simply because they were stronger, they persecuted them because of this.

As she thought she realised she had entered the mindscape, now that she was here, she may as well ask her questions, maybe she would get some answers. She drifted into the centre, the bijuu were asleep, they hadn't woken up since the Shinju, only Kurama was awake, the fox had assured them that the others would wake up, they just needed too gather their strength once more.

As she entered the mindscape, the fox awoke and turned to her, she approached, not making a sound, for a moment she feared that she would be deaf even in her own mind, but the kyuubi spoke.

 **"Hana, what an unexpected surprise."** The was a slight amount of surprise in the fox's voice.

"I just want to ask you some things." Hana said simply, "I was wondering, this world, it has a force called the mist, it hides the godly interference from the mortals and some of the demi-gods. I was just wondering if we have anything similar back in the elemental nations."

The fox winced slightly, **"no, we have no such force, chakra… this line of questioning will have negative repercussions, I would appreciate it if you don't delve any deeper."**

Hana blinked a look of confusion crossing her face, "what repercussions all I'm asking is-"

 **"It's not anything like that, it's just the questions an answer I can give you will raise, there are no forces concealing anything in the elemental nations. Forget about this, that's all you need to know."**

"How could the answer be that dangerous, I was just wondering about the-"

 **"Well stop wondering, it does not do well to dwell on these questions. I think you should wake up, Fu is about to begin healing again by the looks of it."**

Hana awoke, forcefully, being ejected from the mindscape was never fun, but the bijuu could do it at a whim. She shook her head and looked up to Fu, who was hovering above her, her hands already glowing.

"Hey, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Fu said, loud enough for the temporarily deaf jinchuuriki to hear, but it was muffled, like she was underwater, she shivered at that.

As Fu began to heal her, the song invaded her mind, it had happened the first time as well, when the daughter of Apollo healed her, the song seemed to be the only thing she could hear. It was beautiful, after the silence, the terrifying silence only broken by the painful buzzing it was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard.

"You have a beautiful voice." She muttered, interrupting the treatment, or at least she tried to, she couldn't tell if she had yelled it or whispered it.

Fu grunted as she finished for the day, her hearing had improved, now the annoying buzzing was gone, which was a plus. It sounded like she was being stalked by a bee hive.

"Thank you." She wheezed out, she hadn't collapsed this time, which was a plus, "I think I'm getting the hang of this."

"Good," Hana said, they lapsed into a polite silence, or at least Hana did, she wasn't sure if Fu was singing or screaming, or what. Being deaf wasn't fun for her.

After a silence Yugito came in, she and Garra had been guarding, and after the previous attack, they were taking their job seriously. They went around the ship, destroying anything that looked monster-like that came too close, unfortunately, that was becoming quite a lot. Hana had been wondering why? They had been off the ship for only five minutes, yet a pack had managed to find them, she remembered learning how monsters could track a demi-gods scent, which was why she was curious as to why they hadn't been fighting that many monsters. They were eight demi-gods, three children of the big three and a son of Hera, one of three. Surely that would fill any monster's collection.

Yet they had only been attacked once, after they had all left the ship and stayed in close proximity. It was a lightbulb moment, she quickly turned to Yugito.

"How many attacks have there been today?" She asked.

"Umm, two, one right after the others went into town and one just a few minutes ago." She yelled, Hana had just made it out.

"Where you or Garra off the ship at the time?" Yugito nodded, Hana smiled to herself, "okay, I think I've figured out something. I think the ship is covering our scents. When we go off, we suddenly appear as eight tasty demi-gods, from out of nowhere, that's why we haven't been attacked that much."

"Oh." Yugito said, "that makes sense, so we should stay on board."

"Yeah, and when we go out we should stay in small groups, no more than three."

"Yeah. So, just thinking here, three kids of the big three and a child of Athena all in the one place, not a good idea." Fu said, the others widened their eyes.

"Yes!" Yugito yelled, "we need to find them."

"Yeah, lets go," Fu got up to move but Yugito pushed her back down.

"Oh, no, you are just after healing Hana, you're exhausted, me and Garra will go, we'll be back soon, if your theory on the boat is right then you should be fine." She then left.

Time passed painfully slowly for the two jinchuuriki from then on, so much so that the thump on the outside of ship almost made Fu happy. She made her way out, hobbling along, using the walls as a guideline, when she got on deck she was scared.

Utakata, B and Roshi had collapsed on deck, Yugito didn't look far off following them, Garra was hovering just overboard, his sand was holding several monsters at bay, there weren't many details Fu could make out, just claws, teeth and clumps of fur. The sand was wrapped around all of this, creating a dome of limbs, and sand. A complete mess to look at, Garra looked like he was struggling to contain it though, sweat beaded on his forehead and his arms were shaking.

Yagura yelled at Garra, "drop them in the water." She raised her hands and the water beneath the sand became a whirlpool. Garra complied and his sand flew to his back, combining back into his gourd, which morphed into a backpack, he then collapsed on deck, joining the others. Yagura was now the one concentrating hard on the water, until only golden dust remained of the monsters.

"Well, looks like Hana's theory was right." Yugito said, gesturing to the nearby shore, a single dracaena was on the shore, sniffing like a dog, after a few minutes she gave up and slinked away.


	10. Chapter 10

After the terrifying experience with the garden emporium, they decided they wanted to spend no more time there. The snack-bar didn't look so appealing to Whiskers, so he decided to hunt for his food and, after much disagreement with Annabeth, he took of into the forest, food on his mind. He returned to them in half an hour, claiming to have found a camp-site, his mouth was caked in the dried blood of his kill, they weren't sure how he found something so quickly, but didn't question it.

The demi-gods camped out in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers. Whiskers had chosen the spot because it was the only place with enough room, could be easily defended and that the trees here would be uncomfortable to sleep in. The others agreed, after they saw some of the insect life that was currently occupying the trees.

They had taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but didn't dare light a fire to dry the damp from their clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day, so they didn't want to attract anything else.

They decided to sleep in shifts, Percy volunteered to take first watch.

Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground, Whiskers was acting as her pillow and wrapped his tail around her. He seemed happy with this, even though being slept on was not something that looked particularly comfortable to Percy, especially when the person who was sleeping on you was so much bigger than you. Grover slept on a log next to Percy's own one, the bark looking much softer than the son of Poseidon's.

"Go ahead and sleep," Percy told him. "I'll wake you if there's trouble."

He nodded, but still didn't close his eyes. "It makes me sad, Percy."

"What does? The fact that you signed up for this stupid quest?"

"No. This makes me sad." He pointed at all the garbage on the ground.

"And the sky. You can't even see the stars. They've polluted the sky. This is a terrible time to be a satyr."

"Oh, yeah. I guess you'd be an environmentalist."

He glared. "Only a human wouldn't be. Your species is clogging up the world so fast... ah, never mind. It's useless to lecture a human. At the rate things are going, I'll never find Pan."

"Pam? Like the cooking spray?"

"Pan!" he cried indignantly. "P-A-N. The great god Pan! What do you think I want a searcher's license for?"

A strange breeze rustled through the clearing, temporarily overpowering the stink of trash and muck. It brought the smell of berries and wildflowers and clean rain water, things that might've once been in these woods. A felling of nostalgia washed through the clearing, like they were remembering something they had never known before, but it was so familiar.

"Tell me about the search," he said.

Grover looked at him cautiously, as if he were afraid he was just making fun.

"The God of Wild Places disappeared two thousand years ago," he told him. "A sailor off the coast of Ephesos heard a mysterious voice crying out from the shore, 'Tell them that the great god Pan has died!' When humans heard the news, they believed it. They've been pillaging Pan's kingdom ever since. But for the satyrs, Pan was our lord and master. He protected us and the wild places of the earth. We refuse to believe that he died. In every generation, the bravest satyrs pledge their lives to finding Pan. They search the earth, exploring all the wildest places, hoping to find where he is hidden, and wake him from his sleep."

"And you want to be a searcher."

"It's my life's dream," he said. "My father was a searcher. And my Uncle Ferdinand... the statue you saw back there."

"Oh, right, sorry."

Grover shook his head. "Uncle Ferdinand knew the risks. So, did my dad. But I'll succeed. I'll be the first searcher to return alive."

"Hang on the first?"

Grover took his reed pipes out of his pocket. "No searcher has ever come back. Once they set out, they disappear. They're never seen alive again."

"Not once in two thousand years?"

"No."

"And your dad? You have no idea what happened to him?"

"None."

"But you still want to go," Percy said amazed at his determination, and fearlessness of his death. "I mean, you really think you'll be the one to find Pan?"

"I have to believe that, Percy. Every searcher does. It's the only thing that keeps us from despair when we look at what humans have done to the world. I have to believe Pan can still be awakened."

They stared at the orange haze of the sky as both keeping their thoughts to themselves.

"How are we going to get into the Underworld?" Percy asked him. "I mean, what chance do we have against a god?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "But back at Medusa's, when you were searching her office? Annabeth was telling me-"

"Oh, I forgot. Annabeth will have a plan all figured out."

"Don't be so hard on her, Percy. She's had a tough life, but she's a good person. After all, she forgave me..." His voice faltered.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked. "Forgave you for what?"

Suddenly, Grover seemed very interested in playing notes on his pipes.

"Wait a minute," he said. "Your first keeper job was five years ago, Annabeth has been at camp five years. She wasn't... I mean, your first assignment that went wrong-"

"I can't talk about it," Grover said, and his quivering lower lip suggested he'd start crying if he was pressed about it. "But as I was saying, back at Medusa's, Annabeth and I agreed there's something strange going on with this quest. Some-thing isn't what it seems."

"What am I in this?" They turned to see Whiskers was apparently awake, "why do I not get to be part of the idea team."

"Sorry." Grover said. "Well back at Medusa's, Annabeth, Whiskers and I agreed," he looked pointedly at the fox who seemed quite pleased with himself, "there's something strange going on with this quest. Some-thing isn't what it seems."

"Well, duh. I'm getting blamed for stealing a thunder bolt that Hades took."

"That's not what I mean," Grover said. "The Fur- the Kindly Ones were sort of holding back. Like Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy... why did she wait so long to try to kill you? Then on the bus, they just weren't as aggressive as they could've been."

"They seemed plenty aggressive to me." Whiskers shivered as Percy said this, the memory of Parrot coming back to him.

Grover shook his head. "They were screeching at us: 'Where is it? Where?'"

"Asking about me," Percy said.

"Maybe... but Annabeth and I, we both got the feeling they weren't asking about a person. They said 'Where is it?' They seemed to be asking about an object."

"That doesn't make sense."

"I know. But if we've misunderstood something about this quest, and we only have nine days to find the master bolt..." He looked like he was hoping for answers, but neither Percy nor Whiskers seemed to have any.

Percy looked conflicted for a moment, before his eyes showed determination, "I haven't been straight with you," he told Grover and the listening fox. "I don't care about the master bolt. I agreed to go to the Underworld, so I could bring back my mother."

Whiskers snorted, and Grover blew a soft note on his pipes. "I know that, Percy. But are you sure that's the only reason?"

"I'm not doing it to help my father. He doesn't care about me. I don't care about him."

Grover gazed down from his tree branch. "Look, Percy, I'm not as smart as Annabeth. I'm not as brave as you." He looked at Whiskers who seemed to be daring him to say something, "or as… sly?" Whiskers seemed to grin at him and he accepted it, "as Whiskers, but I'm pretty good at reading emotions. You're glad your dad is alive. You feel good that he's claimed you, and part of you wants to make him proud. That's why you mailed Medusa's head to Olympus. You wanted him to notice what you'd done."

"Yeah? Well maybe satyr emotions work differently than human emotions. Because you're wrong. I don't care what he thinks."

Grover pulled his feet up onto the branch. "Okay, Percy. Whatever."

"Besides, I haven't done anything worth bragging about. We barely got out of New York and we're stuck here with no money and no way west."

"Always look on the bright side of life." Sang the fox lightly, before turning to Annabeth's sleeping form and holding her tightly.

Grover looked at the night sky, like he was thinking about that problem. "How about I take first watch, huh? You get some sleep."

He wanted to protest, but Grover started to play Mozart, soft and sweet, and Percy turned away, eyes stinging. After a few bars of Piano Concerto no. 12, he was asleep. Whiskers grinned at the goat.

"You got to teach me to do that, imagine the pranks I could do." He said, a smile on his face.

"Sorry, you have to be a nature spirit to use nature magic." Grover said, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Yeah…" Whiskers said, he looked down a bit, "umm, Grover, if I were a nature spirit, could anyone tell? I mean, if there were a new type. Would there be any way to tell?"

Grover looked surprised for a minute, before he looked back at the fox with a scrutinising stare. He looked confused for a moment and sat there in silence, "nature spirits are all different. We aren't all the same, your scent is strange, like a demi-gods, Demeter's or Dionysus, but different, it's more… concentrated for one thing, but it's fractured. It's like I'm only smelling part of you. Do you know where you came from?"

"No… my first memory is being in a forest, I was alone, but I felt a pull, no it was more than that, it was like a magnet, loads of magnets. They were all over the place, I could feel them, but there was only one close to me, I went to it, and found Annie. The pull disappeared once I first taught her, but I… I felt the need to stay with her. Like she could bring me… she could bring me home." Whiskers said, "but I don't have a home."

"There's nothing more?" Grover looked confused, "nothing? That's all you can remember?"

"Yeah… no." Whiskers looked up to the moon, "falling… I remember falling, I was in pain, it felt like my head was going to burst, then I hit something and blacked out. When I met Annie I knew some words, I knew how they made me feel. I remember… one word more than the others." He looked at the moon, "hunter, it made me scared, terrified, like I would die if I got caught."

"Hunter… like the hunters of Artemis." Grover asked, he looked even more confused now.

"I think so, when we were on the run, we were fighting hordes of monsters, we were losing, then me and Parrot, we smelt them. The hunters were coming, me and him, we both knew, we felt like we were about to die, we ran, we left them. The hunters saved them, but we left them, out of instinct. I left Annie…" He sounded so broken at the end. "I promised to keep her safe, but she nearly died."

"Hey, it wasn't your fault, maybe you had a bad experience with the hunters." He snapped his fingers, "maybe you lost your memories. You might be able to get that healed, ask the Apollo campers, or Castor or Pollux, Mr D has domains in the mind, it might count."

"Alright." He looked up to Grover, "I'll take next watch, you go to sleep." When Grover looked ready to argue he spoke again, "I've been asleep for a while already, you need rest too. Besides, I'm nocturnal anyway."

Grover sighed, but agreed, he lay down and dozed off, when Whiskers was sure he was asleep he looked at the reed pipes in his hands. The fox lengthened his tail, he had managed to figure out the trick to it a while ago, and for some reason it could grow more than the rest of his body. He wrapped the tail around the pipes and lifted them off the goat's head.

Whiskers then moved his tail in front of his face, his mouth in front of the pipes and he blew gently, a small shrill squeak came from the pipes. After much trial and error, the pipes weren't built for his mouth style, he managed to make it not sound like a suicidal cat. He then tried to imagine how the magic worked, he tried to picture the grass growing as he blew the notes he remembered the spirits at camp used.

Nothing happened for a while, but he kept trying, about an hour later something actually happened, the grass directly in front of him grew. A small patch grew like it was a video being sped up. There was very little growth, but it happened, meaning he could use nature magic.

He snuck the pipes around the goats, neck and looked onto the rising sun, he decided to wake Annabeth up, he was actually tired now, probably from using the nature magic. He gently nudged the daughter of Athena and she awoke alert and ready, typical child of Athena.

"Hey, it's your turn to watch." He said, before hoping into her arms and dozing off almost as fast as Grover. After a while he woke up and saw Annabeth doing the difficult task of waking Percy up, he didn't look that good, he was pale, and muttering incoherently.

Annabeth looked worried for a while, until his eyes opened, he looked around and was nervous looking.

"Well," Annabeth said, "the zombie lives."

He was trembling, whatever dream he had must have been pretty bad for him to be so shaken up after it. "How long was I asleep?"

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Annabeth tossed him a bag of nacho-flavoured corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar.

"And Grover went exploring. Look, he found a friend." Whiskers was also surprised by this, they both turned and came across the sight of Grover sitting cross-legged on a blanket with something fuzzy in his lap, a dirty, unnaturally pink stuffed animal.

No. It wasn't a stuffed animal. It was a pink poodle.

The poodle yapped suspiciously. Grover said, "No, he's not." Whiskers growled, drawing the attention of the dog, who yapped again. Whiskers looked affronted for a moment before he growled once more and grew to the size of a husky, the puddle whined and shuffled about in Grover's arms.

Percy blinked. "Are you... talking to that thing?"

The poodle growled, but Whiskers growled louder, Grover looked embarrassed, his red face giving Percy the impression that whatever Whiskers had said was not for children's ears.

"This thing," Grover warned, "is our ticket west. Be nice to him."

"You can talk to animals?"

"Of course, he can, we both can," Whiskers said, "little mutt has been chatting shit," he growled once more, "and I'm getting pretty hungry." Whiskers spoke, the boy looked pretty confused but then his eyes widened, "come on Grover, let me eat him, I don't want to go hunting now, nothing's ever out in the morning, nothing that makes good eating anyway."

Grover ignored the fox. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."

Percy stared at Annabeth, figuring she'd crack up at this practical joke they were playing, but she looked deadly serious.

"I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle," he said. "Forget it."

"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

"Hello breakfast." Whiskers said, the poodle shrunk away from the predatory gaze the fox was giving him.

The poodle looked at Percy though and growled slightly, then Whiskers stood in front of him and snarled something in what Percy assumed was fox, the poodle whimpered and hid in Grover's arms, who looked quite pale.

"Whiskers… please don't do that." At the others questioning gazes he shivered while Whiskers looked the epitome of innocence.

Percy decided to say hello to the poodle, if only to distract Grover and the poodle from whatever Whiskers had described to them in his native tongue.

After he stopped shaking, though he still looked pale and glanced at Whiskers warily, Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation.

The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Percy asked.

"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."

"Yeah Percy," Whiskers chimed in, "we animals aren't dyslexic, for the most part." He whispered the last part to himself, not really wanting to tell him that he too was dyslexic.

"Of course," Percy said. "Silly me."

"Don't you get snarky with me young man." The fox said.

"So, we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained, in her best strategy voice, trying to stop the two of them fighting, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

Percy looked nervous, his eyes glazed over slightly, before he seemed to realise something, "not another bus," he said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, toward train tracks that hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west bound train leaves at noon."

(With the jinchuuriki)

"I say we split up." Roshi said, "it is the wisest option, now that we have an idea of what we are looking for we can find him easier. Especially now that we have the link back up. We can cover the distance in between our jumps while you wait for Hana to be healed. Then we can meet in the next area."

"No!" Fu disagreed, "we just got back together, I say we stick together and go to camp by boat."

"I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Roshi here." Utakata said, "me and B are nearly useless in a fight on the water, we have the best chance of defending ourselves if we can make it there by foot. This way we can check out the land in between jumps, for all we know we've passed him."

"You two have the largest scents, along with me, the best place for you two is on the ship. The monsters can't find you here." Yagura said.

"Yeah, but if the barrier gets broke, we won't have high hope." B said.

"Look, I think it is a better idea if we can stay together, if something happens then we'll be able to get through it together." Yugito said.

"Okay, we'll have a vote." Garra said, "all for staying together?"

Fu, Yugito and Yagura raised their hands.

"Those who want us to split up?"

B, Utakata, Roshi, and Hana all raised their hands, Garra also stuck his hand up.

"Fine!" Fu said, "but you have to enter the mindscape every night, and every day."

"Of course." Utakata said.

"Where are we going to find him though?" Yugito asked, "we've looked everywhere, it isn't like we'll just find him wondering about, we wouldn't be able to see him unless we see him. There is no way for us to track him down, he mightn't even have a working chakra system, and even then, he mightn't know how to use it, and it'll be small."

"Maybe we can hire a satyr or something, they find demi-gods by scent." Roshi said.

"Yeah, that was a satyr with your brother wasn't it Yagura." Fu said.

"Yeah." Yagura said.

"Weird kid," Yugito said, "I think he was checking me out."

"Of course, he was," Utakata said, "you are quite pretty, that became even more pronounced when your mother claimed you."

Yugito blushed and then looked annoyed at the memory, "I thought we wouldn't bring that up again."

The Greek half had all been claimed soon after they had arrived at the camp, they decided to live together instead of going to a separate cabin. They stayed in one of the spare rooms in the big house and were claimed, none of the campers knew of the parentage of B as apparently, a child of the big three would make a lot of them nervous, but the others met their other siblings before they left. They didn't exactly talk due to the language barrier, but they at least knew they had more family, Yugito got the traditional claiming from Aphrodite and was horrified to find she was wearing a dress, makeup and high heels.

The Greek jinchuuriki had shared this story with their Roman siblings during their travels and they all enjoyed teasing Yugito about it.

"Yugito, wore a dress fo show. Looked real pretty but poor kitty, didn't like it much and screamed a bunch." B said, the others facepalmed while Yugito, because B didn't seem to get the memo, face-palmed him herself.

"Idiot." She said, "I didn't scream." The slight blush she had indicated otherwise, as she relived the memory.

"Sure, you didn't." Fu said, giggling slightly.

"Oh, wise up, daddy's little girl." Yugito said, a grin plastering her face.

Fu went slightly red, "I'm not a daddy's girl." She said with a huff.

"Sure..." Yugito said with a grin.

"He gave me a present. It's not that big a deal." Fu huffed.

"Yup, and you wear it all the time, even when you sleep." Yugito had a sly grin on her face.

"Oh, be quiet." Fu was blushing slightly.

"You sleep with those in your hair?" Roshi asked.

"…No." Fu said, failing to hide her embarrassment.

They all laughed for a while at their sister's expense.

"Right, anyway, so…" Roshi said, his tone turning serious instantly. "Who's going with who?"

"Hana, Fu and Yagura are staying, that should be obvious, but I think it would be best to split B and Utakata." Yugito said.

"Two and three." Yagura said, "B with two extra, and Utakata with one extra."

"Don't you love it when you become an extra." Yugito said with an exaggerated frown, "Roshi and me with B, and Utakata with Garra. Seem fair."

"Yeah, but why is B with three, y'all picked that pretty quick, what's with that shtick."

"I don't think you know what that word means, but anyway, us two are with you to make sure that we can take shifts making sure you don't do something too stupid."

"Okay, lets get ready to go then." Garra said.

"Before you do…" A voice said, they turned and found the owner to be Juno, Garra's mother, sitting on the deck, her staff by her side and her goatskin cloak around her, "I must ask that you do something."

"Mother." He said, "why are you here?"

"I can't take some time out to see my son?" She said, a hint of a grin on her face.

"Apparently not." Hana muttered, thinking about the fact that she hadn't even met her father.

"I am here to warn you of something." Juno said, completely disregarding the daughter of Hephaestus, "you cannot tell the camp of the others existence." She said, "I am here to make sure that you do that, you must swear an oath on the river Styx not to tell either camp of its counterpart. We have worked for too many years to keep them separate, you must swear this oath. I am not sure if you have done this for the Greek half's, but we need you to do this."

They each swore the oath as thunder boomed overhead.

"I must go now, Garra, tell your brother and sister I love them." Juno said, before disappearing from view.

"Well…" Roshi said, "at least we know what to do now."

And so, they split up, they didn't need to pack much, but any personal possessions were stuffed away in small rucksacks.

Roshi, B and Yugito went first, having made the decision to leave two hours apart, to ensure less monster activity. They all agreed to meet in the Salt Lake, as that was their next stop, group A, Utakata and Garra, would go through all the forest parks and see if he was there. Group B (three guesses who picked that name) would follow the main roads, hoping their brother wouldn't be found as roadkill.

The journey was long, but they had somehow managed to avoid any monsters, maybe groups of three were good luck after all.

Eventually, Roshi, B and Yugito decided to stop once the sun started setting, they had made some good progress, having passed through Laramie a few miles back. They went to a random motel, they didn't want to travel by night to much and they were exhausted.

For some reason, though, Roshi couldn't sleep, he was the eldest of them all and felt that they should listen to him, he had fought in the third shinobi war. He was the most experienced, yet they ignored his advice for so long, he was nervous to find his brother, that was why he wanted them to split up.

He sat there staring at the ceiling of the motel room they shared, Yugito got a room to herself and B was with him, it's not like any of them minded sharing a bed. Though he could be annoying he was his brother and Roshi could deal with him, he smiled at the thought, but his thoughts once again drifted to his other brother. A frown appeared on his face.

They had betrayed him. There was nothing else to say, they may have done it to keep him alive, but the pain he went through, he must remember every single time he was hurt because of them. His skin was permanently branded, it was all their fault.

He hoped they could be forgiven.

He tried drifting off to sleep, but again he couldn't. He sighed.

Suddenly he heard a noise outside.

He was raised a ninja, he was always cautious. In this world monsters lurked around every corner, they would always try to hunt down demi-gods. Since he was a demi-god he would face them on a regular basis, because they travelled in their group they would attract more.

Since they were trained ninja they could take on most of the monsters alone, some they would need help with, mostly due to their child-like bodies, but they could handle themselves well.

He looked out the grimy window and saw a figure outside. It was a woman, dressed in jeans and a pair of hiking boots, she had a red flannel shirt, she had dark hair flowing down her back. She had a backpack slung over her shoulder and held a walking stick in her hand. She stood there with a map, looking at it occasionally but then looked up, she caught Roshi's gaze and beckoned him to come to her. Roshi was surprised, he felt something familiar about this woman, she reminded him of someone.

He went down and walked over to her, he stared at her for a few minutes, she kept glancing from the map to him. Grey eyes being something alien to him, he was intrigued. She was muttering something intelligible every once in a while. Roshi wondered who she was, she gave off an aura, it was like when they met Apollo.

"Athena." Roshi guessed, she turned to him and her form changed, her clothes changed to elegant grey robes, her walking stick became a spear and the map a shield. Upon her head a helmet made of what looked like gold appeared, Roshi was shocked at the transformation, he stepped back.

"Yes, I am Athena." She said, she looked at him and her eyes softened very sightly, "hello Roshi."

"Mother." Roshi said happily, he didn't know what else to say.

"I am your mother yes." She said with a smile, Roshi returned it, "you look so much older when I last saw you, I'm sorry for never returning."

"I understand, Artemis explained it all to me, I…" Roshi said, unable to think of anything to say.

"Good, I am sorry about it though, I have come to give you a gift." She stabbed her spear into the ground and then held her hand out, from it a hat appeared, it looked like the one Roshi wore in the elemental nations but instead of the symbol of Iwa, an owl was engraved on a strip of metal on the front. "This hat, will make you invisible to all, I have given one of your sisters a similar hat, it does not hide your smell or any other sense. Use it wisely." She said as she handed him the hat. She then held her hand out again, this time a spear appeared, like her own, it shrunk down until it became the form of a pencil. "This spear was made especially for you, I had my brother Hephaestus make it, it can handle any temperature, and conducts heat well, I understand that you can control lava due to the four tails. Tell your siblings to avoid using elemental powers, some gods do not appreciate their domains being used, my brother has allowed you to use his domain as long as you only do so through this spear. To turn it into a spear simply break the lead, and to turn it back, tap the bottom with your palm."

"Thank you, mother." Roshi said, he was amazed at the gifts, "if a god is the parent of a child who can use an element can they…"

"Yes, their parent already gives them power over their domain. Your brother B will have greater control over lightning and your sister Yagura will have the same for water, now that they have been blessed. Since Hera has commanded it, Garra is allowed to use his sand, the others are going to have trouble. Tell Utakata not to use his power over water, the elder brothers do not like their children anywhere near another's domain."

"Thank you. Err, mother, why did you look so different until I said your name?"

At this, the goddess gave him a pained expression, "that is my… Roman form."

"Minerva?"

Her form flickered between the two before she finally settled on Athena, "yes."

"Is there something wrong mother?"

"No, just, being her is not a comfortable experience."

"I apologise, I didn't mean to cause you discomfort."

"Do not worry about it. I must leave you now though."

"Thank you, mother, I should probably go back too, we're heading to the Roman camp tomorrow."

At this, she flickered to Minerva and looked at him, "Romans, they stole from me, they made me weak, avenge me."

"Mother?"

"You are my child? My child shall avenge me, destroy the Romans, my son, go."

"Mother, I can't destroy the Romans."

"Then you are not my child."

"M-m-mother, why are you acting this way?"

"The mark." Her form flickered once more, and Athena appeared once more, "I apologise, as you can see, my Roman half is not too happy with her kind, but that is not something you should concern yourself with. I am sorry, but for now I must go."

She then disappeared into the darkness of the night, leaving a very confused Roshi standing there.

(The next day)

The group had all woken up, but before they began their journey, they checked in with their other siblings in the mindscape

"So, are we ready to go? Time to start the show?" B asked.

"Yeah," Roshi said, he then looked away from them, "my mother visited me last night." He said.

"Oh, what did she say?" Yugito asked.

"She gave me some gifts," he pulled out his pencil and hat. The others looked at him for a minute, before Fu started giggling slightly.

"So, at least you won't get cold, and can write notes for us." She said, the others looked confused.

Roshi sighed, he then snapped the tip of his pencil, causing the spear to appear, enjoying the shocked look on Fu's face, "she also told me to give you a message, don't use any elemental attacks."

"Why?" Garra asked.

"The gods don't appreciate us using their domains, B, Garra and Yagura are safe, your parents gave you control over the domain, but the rest of us shouldn't. My mother arranged a deal with Hana's father to let me use lava, but only through the spear."

"Oh, does that mean I can't use this anymore?" Utakata asked, holding his pipe.

"Probably, sorry." Roshi said sadly.

"Anything else?" Garra said.

"Not really, but this hat can make me invisible apparently." Roshi said as he put the hat on, if the shocked looks on his sibling's face were anything to go by it worked.

"Umm, could you take it off." Hana called out to him. Roshi appeared in front of them, his hat in his hands.

"Well," Garra began, "if that is all we'd better get going." They left the mindscape and each began their journeys.


	11. Chapter 11

The questers spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain. They weren't attacked once, but none of them relaxed, not knowing when the next attack could happen.

The group tried to keep a low profile on Percy, his name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The _Trenton Register-News_ showed a photo taken by a tourist as they got off the Greyhound bus. He had a wild look in his eyes. His sword was a metallic blur in his hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.

The picture's caption read:

 _Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers._ _The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices._ _His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture._

"Don't worry," Annabeth told him. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.

"Annie knows how to use the mist a little bit if it comes to it." Whiskers supplied, none of the passengers seemed to notice the fox the only one that did was a four-year-old, who tried to pet him. Whiskers didn't have the heart to tell her to go away, so he showed off a bit, knowing that in the future the girl would chalk this up to her childhood imagination. After he started hanging from the ceiling the girl ran to her parents, squealing about the magic fox, they said what an active imagination she had and gave her some chocolate to shut her up.

The demi-gods were uncomfortable in such a cramped space, Percy especially often wondered off, pacing the train to keep a handle on his ADHD. Annabeth had her book, but even then, she was constantly moving, her leg bouncing up and down, her fingers drumming on the spine of the book. The only one seemingly fine with this was Grover, he had been napping a lot.

The reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. They couldn't get in the sleeper car, so they simply dozed in their seats. Percy tried not to drool in his sleep, but failed, probably because Annabeth was sitting right next to him. She didn't seem to get the neck problems though, possibly due to the furry pillow she called Whiskers, who hung around her neck like one of those stuffed scarfs rich people had. Not a particularly nice description if the look of fear in his vulpine eyes was anything to go by after Percy mentioned this.

Grover kept snoring and bleating, seeming to have no problems sleeping, unfortunately he became the root cause of the other passenger's insomnia.

The only action to happen was when Percy spotted a family of centaurs, galloping across the fields of wheat. They had their bows out and were looking for food, when Whiskers heard this, he popped his head up and looked at them, he recognised them. They had been at camp one year, in fact the only reason the couple were together was because of Whiskers, the Stoll brothers and a prom dress.

Whiskers, decided to go out for a chat, he opened the window slightly and shrunk until he was small enough to fit through the gap and stuck to the side of the train. He yelled out to them and they spotted him, the father gestured for the rest of the family to go ahead as he galloped closer until he was coming in alongside the train, easily matching its pace.

"Whiskers!" The father of the family said, "what are you doing here on this fine day?"

"I'm on a quest, actually." Whiskers said with a grin, "got to make it to L.A."

"Sounds nice, so who's with you?"

"Annie of course."

"Naturally."

"Do you remember Grover, the satyr?"

"Yeah, little fella, last, I heard he was on parole, good to hear he's doing well for himself."

"And Percy Jackson, you wouldn't know him, he's a new camper, only here a few weeks."

"What's he doing on a quest then?"

"He's a son of Poseidon, it's his quest."

"Ah, such a shame, Chiron must have been annoyed sending an unprepared kid on a quest."

"Yeah, he was a bit, but Percy's a good kid, best swordfighter I've seen for a while."

"Well good for him, so why you headed to L.A. anyway?"

"Have to go to the underworld." At this the centaur stumbled a bit, before catching himself.

"What would you be doing in a place like that?" He asked warily.

"Sorry, can't say, you know how it is, I say something someone up there will set off the thunder." Thunder rumbled, "you know, like that."

"Fair enough." The centaur eyed the sky warily, "say, I don't think this train goes to L.A. I think it heads back, you sure you're on the right one?"

"Yeah, money's tight so we're going to figure out where we're going when we get there."

"Oh, that's a shame." He then looked over to where his family was, "well, if you're interested, me and the family are heading to Denver, we'll be heading to Vegas after that. Not sure how much good it'll do you, but it's closer than Denver."

"I couldn't ask you to do that." Whiskers said, "we'll find our own way, it-"

"No, I owe you for getting me together with my wife, think of this as me repaying my debt." The centaur said.

"But you're family, they-"

"Don't worry about it, my son always wanted to meet a son of Poseidon, he'll be delighted to get the chance, and my wife loves Annabeth, such a polite young girl."

"Thanks, I'll talk to Annie about it, she might have a plan, but-"

"Just in case, right?" The centaur smiled, "we'll be in the Barr Lake forest park, there's an archery range there, hoping to teach my kid about the differences between our archery and the human type. You'll find us with that nose of yours, so just go there."

"Thanks, if we find another way I'll try and call in and say, but you know how quests are, we might have to leave in a rush, so if we don't make it to you-"

"You're probably already gone, I understand, I got to go now, hopefully catch some lunch, need to be careful though, there've been reports of the Nemean lion around these parts."

"Right, be careful, I'll hopefully see you soon."

"Yeah, well see you." The horse-man turned to go away.

"Yeah, and Firenze," he turned back, "thanks for this."

"No problem."

Whiskers crawled back into the carriage and came face to face with his worst nightmare, an annoyed Annabeth.

"Where were you?" She asked, her voice deadly calm.

"Just went out for a bit of fresh air." He replied, "ran into an old friend, you remember Firenze, right, well him and his family were going by, and boy do I have a surprise for you when we get to Denver."

"You should have said before you just disappear like that." Annabeth said, "no matter how good that is, you need to say before going away, I need to know you're safe. You had me so worried."

"Percy knew where I was." Whiskers said childishly, she turned a menacing glare to the son of Poseidon, who in turn sent a withering glare to the fox.

"Well, all that matters," Percy began, "is that we're all safe."

"Oh, shut up Seaweed Brain."

From then on, it was pretty boring, well except for the proof that the Nemean lion was in the area, it didn't bother them, it just showed up, then left. Some monsters should take lessons from it.

Grover had once again dozed off, only this time, he shuffled around, and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth and Percy had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed, not sure if the mist would cover random amputation.

"So," Annabeth asked, once they'd solved the problem with Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"

Percy shifted nervously, obvious uncomfortable saying anything. He told her it was the second time he'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit.

Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."

"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"

"I guess... if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"

Percy shook his head, wishing he knew the answer.

"Because he clearly doesn't have it." Whiskers voiced, still wrapped around Annabeth's neck, "so I was right."

"Maybe, but he's our only lead."

"Why do I get the feeling that this will bite me in the ass."

"What?"

"The fact that you won't listen to me."

She promptly ignored him after that as he went on a rant about being ignored.

Maybe Grover sensed one of the other questers tumbling emotions, the fear and nervousness. He snorted in his sleep, muttered something about vegetables, and turned his head.

Annabeth readjusted his cap, so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time-"

"This time?" he asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"

Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."

"What would you do if it was your dad?"

"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot." Whiskers looked sad at her answer.

"You're not serious?"

Annabeth's grey eyes fixed on Percy, Whiskers looked at him, silently telling him to drop it. Unfortunately, it was too late, her expression morphed into her monster fighting one. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."

"But how... I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital..."

Annabeth glared at him before her gaze turned to the grey roof of the train, "I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."

Whiskers gently stroked her hair, with his paws, like he was trying to pet her in the same way she pets him. Percy stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by.

"My mom married a really awful guy," he told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."

Annabeth kept wringing her necklace. She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. Her father's.

"He doesn't care about me," she said, softly. "His wife, my stepmom, treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened, you know, something with monsters, they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."

"How old were you?"

"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."

"But... you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."

"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I met Whiskers here," she smiled at the fox and scratched under his chin, "he took care of me, stole for me, kept me safe, and in return I taught him to speak."

"Wow, wait, you just taught him to speak?" Percy asked, awe and confusion on her face.

"No, he could speak, or at least he tried, he could copy my words, so I taught him how to use them properly. It took a while, but he was a quick learner. You don't think I can actually just train any old fox to speak, no. Whiskers is special." She grinned at him and scratched behind his ears.

"But even then, how did you find camp? Did Whiskers know? Or did you just sort of find it?"

"I made a couple of other friends, they took care of us, for a short time, anyway, until our guide came." She cast a quick glance at the sleeping satyr.

Percy looked ready to ask more about what happened, but Annabeth seemed lost in sad memories, and he thought better of it.

So, he listened to the sound of Grover snoring and gazed out the train windows as the dark fields of Ohio raced by.

Toward the end of the second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, they passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked to like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city to Percy.

"I want to do that," she sighed.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"

"Only in pictures."

"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."

Percy laughed. "You? An architect?"

He didn't know why, but found it funny. Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day.

Whiskers swatted the son of Poseidon with his tail and glared at him for making fun of his best friend, her cheeks, meanwhile flushed, even as she petted her fox. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."

Percy looked down.

"Sorry," Annabeth said. "That was mean."

"Can't we work together a little?" he pleaded. "I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?"

Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess... the chariot," she said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So, they had to work together to make it complete."

"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?"

They rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.

"I suppose," she said at last.

They pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom said they'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.

Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."

"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."

"Sightseeing?"

"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"

Grover and Percy exchanged looks, while Whiskers happily jumped from her neck to the ground where he trotted beside her.

Percy wanted to say no, but figured that if Annabeth was going, they couldn't very well let her go alone, or with only her ever-present foxy companion.

Grover shrugged. "As long as there's a snack bar without monsters."

The Arch was about a mile from the train station. Late in the day the lines to get in weren't that long. They threaded their way through the underground museum, looking at covered wagons and other junk from the 1800s. It wasn't all that thrilling, but Annabeth kept telling them 'interesting' facts about how the Arch was built, and Grover kept passing jelly beans, so Percy was pretty happy.

Percy kept looking around, though, at the other people in line. "You smell anything?" he murmured to Grover.

He took his nose out of the jelly-bean bag long enough to sniff. "Underground," he said distastefully. "Underground air always smells like monsters. Probably doesn't mean anything."

But something was wrong, and Percy wasn't the only one who could feel it, Whiskers was glancing about as well.

"Guys," Percy said. "You know the gods' symbols of power?"

Annabeth had been in the middle of reading about the construction equipment used to build the Arch, but she looked over. "Yeah?"

"Well, Hade-"

Grover cleared his throat. "We're in a public place... You mean, our friend downstairs?"

"Um, right," he said. "Our friend _way_ downstairs. Doesn't he have a hat like Annabeth's?"

"You mean the Helm of Darkness," Annabeth said. "Yeah, that's his symbol of power. I saw it next to his seat during the winter solstice council meeting."

"He was there?" Percy asked.

She nodded. "It's the only time he's allowed to visit Olympus. The darkest day of the year. But his helm is a lot more powerful than my invisibility hat, if what I've heard is true..."

"It allows him to become darkness," Grover confirmed. "He can melt into shadow or pass through walls. He can't be touched, or seen, or heard. And he can radiate fear so intense it can drive you insane or stop your heart. Why do you think all rational creatures fear the dark?"

"But then... how do we know he's not here right now, watching us?" Percy asked.

Annabeth, Whiskers and Grover exchanged looks.

"We don't," Grover said.

"But if it makes you feel any better, he probably has better things to do with his time."

"Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better," Percy said. "Got any blue jelly beans left?"

Percy was hoping about uncomfortably when he saw the elevator they were going through, most demi-gods didn't kike cramped spaces, but Percy took that to a new level.

They were shoehorned into the car with this big fat lady and her dog, a Chihuahua with a rhinestone collar. Maybe the dog was a seeing-eye Chihuahua, because none of the guards said a word about it, though they passed with a silver talking fox so who was he to talk.

They started going up, inside the Arch. Now Percy had never read Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory, but he had seen the movie when he was younger, the curved elevator going up the arch was what he imagined the great glass elevator was like.

"No parents?" the fat lady asked.

She had beady eyes; pointy, coffee-stained teeth; a floppy denim hat, and a denim dress that bulged so much, she looked like a blue-jean blimp.

"They're below," Annabeth told her. "Scared of heights."

"Oh, the poor darlings."

The Chihuahua growled. The woman said, "Now, now, Sonny. Behave." The dog had beady eyes like its owner, intelligent and vicious. They were set specifically on Whiskers, who after hearing the growl turned and gave a growl of his own.

Percy spoke up, "Sonny. Is that his name?"

"No," the lady told him, with a smile, as if that cleared everything up.

At the top of the Arch, the observation deck looked like a tin can with carpeting. Rows of tiny windows looked out over the city on one side and the river on the other. The view was okay, but if there's anything Percy was less comfortable with than a confined space, it's confined space six hundred feet in the air. Percy kept his eyes closed after he first glanced over and saw the city.

Annabeth kept talking about structural supports, and how she would've made the windows bigger, and designed a see-through floor, Whiskers occasionally jumping in with an idea to help improve it, she shot most of them down or improved on them, but he sounded like he could actually speak her language, even if only the basics. He seemed to think just like Annabeth did, but with the amount of time they spent together he had to pick something up.

They probably could've stayed up there for hours, but luckily for the sane, the park ranger announced that the observation deck would be closing in a few minutes.

Percy steered Grover and Annabeth toward the exit, loaded them into the elevator, and was about to get in himself when he realized there were already two other tourists inside. No room for him.

Suddenly one of the tourists had a sneezing fit and glared at Whiskers, who was in Annabeth's arms at this point, he said something to one of the rangers and he told Annabeth to leave him with Percy.

"We'll get out," Annabeth said. "We'll wait with you."

But that was going to mess everybody up and take even more time, so Percy said, "Naw, it's okay. we'll see you guys at the bottom."

Grover and Annabeth both looked nervous, but they let the elevator door slide shut. Their car disappeared down the ramp.

Now the only people left on the observation deck were Percy, Whiskers, a little boy with his parents, the park ranger, and the fat lady with her Chihuahua.

Percy smiled uneasily at the fat lady. She smiled back, her forked tongue flickering between her teeth.

Oh.

Before Percy could comprehend that that had happened, her Chihuahua jumped down and started yapping at Whiskers.

"Now, now, Sonny," the lady said. "Does this look like a good time? We have all these nice people here."

"Doggie!" said the little boy. "Look, a doggie!"

His parents pulled him back, as the Chihuahua bared his teeth at the fox, foam dripping from his black lips. Whiskers was currently in front of Percy and bared his teeth at the slightly smaller creature, they stared each other down, both snarling at each other.

"Well, son," the fat lady sighed. "If you insist."

Percy glanced nervously at the woman. "Urn, did you just call that Chihuahua your son?"

 _"Chimera,_ dear," the fat lady corrected. "Not a Chihuahua. It's an easy mistake to make."

She rolled up her denim sleeves, revealing that the skin of her arms was scaly and green. When she smiled, you could see that her teeth were fangs. The pupils of her eyes were sideways slits, like a reptile's.

The Chihuahua barked louder, and with each bark, it grew. First to the size of a Doberman, then to a lion. The bark became a roar.

The little boy screamed. His parents pulled him back toward the exit, straight into the park ranger, who stood, paralyzed, gaping at the monster.

The Chimera was now so tall it's back rubbed against the roof. It had the head of a lion with a blood-caked mane, the body and hooves of a giant goat, and a serpent for a tail, a ten-foot-long diamondback growing right out of its shaggy behind. The rhinestone dog collar still hung around its neck, and the plate-sized dog tag was now easy to read: CHIMERA—RABID, FIRE-BREATHING, POISONOUS—IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL TARTARUS—EXT. 954.

Percy hadn't even uncapped his sword. He was ten feet away from the Chimera's bloody maw, and knew that as soon as he moved, the creature would lunge. The only thing in between them was the now much smaller fox, who still held his ground against the monster's larger form.

Percy looked at the small fox, he then asked a stupid question, "um, Whiskers, can you do that?"

Whiskers turned and glared at him, he then sighed and grew slightly, he was now about the same size as a large dog. It would have been impressive if his opponent wasn't a Chimera that was nearly bigger than the room they were currently in.

Percy sighed, and Whiskers glared at him again, before turning to face the monster in front of them.

The snake lady made a hissing noise that might've been laughter. "Be honoured, Percy Jackson. Lord Zeus rarely allows me to test a hero with one of my brood. For I am the Mother of Monsters, the terrible Echidna!"

Percy stared at her blankly. Whiskers did the same. Then they both said in unison: "Isn't that a kind of anteater?"

She howled, her reptilian face turning brown and green with rage. "I hate it when people say that! I hate Australia! Naming that ridiculous animal after me. For that, Percy Jackson, my son shall destroy you!"

The Chimera charged, its lion teeth gnashing. Whiskers lunged too but was pushed back by the monster's larger form, the monster ignored what it took as a nuisance and kept going for Percy, who managed to leap aside and dodge the bite.

Percy ended up next to the family and the park ranger, who were all screaming now, trying to pry open the emergency exit doors. Whiskers had managed to move himself so that he was on the monsters back, holding on with his tail wrapped around the other creature's torso, he then bit the chimera in the shoulder, it howled and tried to dislodge the fox. Whiskers let go of the monster with his tail, which wrapped around the snake tail of the Chimera as it lunged at him, he held it by the mouth, so it couldn't bite him, but it was trying to escape.

Percy looked back at the family, determination in his eyes. He uncapped his sword, ran to the other side of the deck, and yelled, "Hey, Chihuahua!" The Chimera turned faster than he would've thought possible, ignoring the literal pain in the neck as it took notice of the slightly glowing blade.

Before he could swing the sword, it opened its mouth, emitting a stench like the world's largest barbecue pit, and shot a column of flame straight at him.

He dove through the explosion. The carpet burst into flames; the heat was so intense, it nearly seared off his eye brows.

Where he had been standing a moment before was a ragged hole in the side of the Arch, with melted metal steaming around the edges.

Great. They just blow torched a national monument.

Riptide was now a shining bronze blade, and as the Chimera turned, Percy slashed at its neck, avoiding the fox, who was struggling to hold on with his teeth as the tails fought for dominance.

That proved to be a fatal mistake. The blade sparked harmlessly off the dog collar. The monster twisted, finally dislodging the fox as Percy tried to regain his balance, but he was so worried about defending himself against the fiery lion's mouth, he completely forgot about the serpent tail until it managed to escape its furry prison and whipped around, sinking its fangs into his calf. It then whipped back and wrapped around Whiskers torso, biting where the head ended up, at his neck, before flinging him towards the family, he managed to stop himself from hitting them, he changed form once more, his body growing to match that of a small pony in a futile attempt to slow the poisons progress by giving it more area to go through. At the very least he would last a little longer.

Percy grunted, and he tried to jab Riptide into the Chimera's mouth, but the serpent tail wrapped around his ankles and pulled him off balance, his blade flew out of his hand, spinning out of the hole in the Arch and down toward the Mississippi River.

He managed to get to his feet, but knew he had lost. He imagined Whiskers felt the same, he too had been bit by the monstrous snake and had its venom coursing through him.

Percy was weapon less, he could feel deadly poison racing up to his chest. He remembered Chiron saying that Anaklusmos would always return to him, but there was no pen in his pocket. Whiskers on the other hand had the same venom flowing through his veins but stood, he turned to the monster and snarled out a growl that sounded worse than the chimeras own. Percy could have sworn the monster flinched at that, but after a look from its mother it growled back and stood its ground.

Whiskers and the monster circled each other for a few seconds before the fox lunged at the monster, the monster was ready, and the snake tail swung around to tear into the flesh of the fox. Whiskers had expected this though and managed to bite down on the snake head before it bit him. The lion howled and swiped with his paw, Whiskers hit the wall near Percy, he grunted but grinned at the monster, whose tail now hung uselessly.

"You'll pay for that vermin!" Echidna howled as the Chimera marched forward.

The two of them backed into the hole in the wall. The Chimera advanced, growling, smoke curling from its lips, it glanced warily at Whisker who stood in its path. The snake lady, Echidna, cackled. "They don't make heroes like they used to, eh, son?"

The monster growled, as if saying 'shut up that hurt,' it seemed in to be nervous of the fox, he didn't seem to be in as much pain as Percy was.

Percy glanced at the park ranger and the family. The little boy was hiding behind his father's legs. They had to protect these people.

He then glanced to the river, Whiskers followed his gaze.

There was no place else to go, so he stepped to the edge of the hole. Far, far below, the river glittered.

"If you are the son of Poseidon," Echidna hissed, "you would not fear water. Jump, Percy Jackson. Show me that water will not harm you. Jump and retrieve your sword. Prove your bloodline."

The Chimera's mouth glowed red, heating up for another blast aimed at Whiskers.

"You have no faith," Echidna told him. "You do not trust the gods. I cannot blame you, little coward. Better you die now. The gods are faithless. The poison is in your heart."

She was right: He was dying, his breath was slowing down. Nobody could save him, Whiskers was also suffering, but he somehow wasn't as bad, his breathing was off, but he showed no other signs of the venom affecting him.

Percy looked at Whiskers in front of him, he stood firm, even with a fire breathing monster in front of him. Percy decided to be like him, he would face his death fighting.

"Die, faithless one," Echidna rasped, and the Chimera sent a column of flame toward Whiskers, who stood guarding Percy, he turned, time seemed to slow, Whiskers looked him in the eye, before swatting him through the hole with his tail, he was not expecting that. As he fell he looked to where Whiskers had stood, there was just a blazing inferno of flame, Percy felt like crying. The fox had saved him, he gave him the chance to heal from the damage inflicted to him by the poison, he looked down to the water as he fell.

"Father, help me," he prayed.

He fell, poison coursing through his veins, minus the friend that had saved his life, 'hopefully', he thought as he plummeted toward the river.

(With the jinchuuriki)

Team B had made some good distance this time, they had therefore decided to camp out for the night, the three of them were tired. So they entered the mindscape and decided to talk more about the lack of elemental abilities they could use.

"So, if we can't use our elemental powers then what can we use?" Fu asked.

"Well, we can use weapons, your dad already gave you yours." Utakata said, out of all of them, he was probably the most put off by the loss of his powers. He used his pipe to blow bubbles constantly, without it he felt really stressed, he was normally laid back because he always used his pipe to calm himself, without it, he got snappier, "I don't know what you've got to complain about."

"Well, Roshi's got his spear, Fu's got her bow, B and Yagura can still use their elements, and Garra can still use his sand. The rest of us should only use taijutsu or just stay out of the fight" Hana said.

"We can always use brute force." Yugito said, after she found out she was the daughter of the love goddess she had been a bit annoyed by it, she was a kunoichi, not some princess.

"Not a good idea," Garra said, "until we can get you some weapons you should all just leave the fighting to us, we aren't going to face many more monsters, we're nearly there."

As if to prove him wrong, team B were jolted awake by an intrusion to their camp, there was a hissing noise close to them, they turned and saw a large lizard like creature standing in front of them. It had six heads, each diamond shaped and hissing at them, there were two heads looking at each of them hungrily. They all looked at each other, before quickly getting into battle stances. They turned and looked each head in the eye, Roshi pulled his spear out, B cackled with lightning, Yugito grew claws and looked ready to pounce,

The hydra looked nervous for a moment, most demi-gods would panic at the sight of it, but these demi-gods were not what they seemed, it smelled them and assumed they would be easy targets. Suddenly one of the heads spat acid at what it considered to be the weakest, Yugito dived out of the way before rolling to her feet and smirking,

B fired bolts of lightning at the head, which hurt it enough for it to scream out. Roshi jumped at another head and drove the spear into its open mouth before channelling some lava into it, it howled as its tongue was sent up in flames, the head slowly started to melt until all that was left was a limp neck.

Yugito launched at her head, claws digging into the gaps between the scales, she stabbed as many places as she could, the head now had dozens of scales covered in its blood. Yugito was currently on the back of its head as it bucked trying to get her off, she dug her nails into one scale, before pulling with all her might, the scale came loose, and it howled in agony. She then saw the weak flesh that was underneath the scale and smirked darkly, she raised her hand and pointed all her claws down before violently stabbing down into the unguarded flesh, straight through the skull and into the brain. The head fell limp like the other.

"What was that?" Yugito asked, staring at the monster.

"I don't know." Roshi replied, he hated not knowing. Then it clicked, "hydra."

Suddenly something strange happened, the stumps where the heads were now smoking, then to their confusion and great disgust, new heads grew from the stumps. There were now seven heads hissing angrily at them. Roshi was analysing the creature, he noticed that one of the stumps still remained, the head he took care of, with lava.

"We need to cauterise its wound, when we slice a head off." He told his siblings, "I'll take care of that, just take care of the heads." The got to work, each doing the same thing as before, Yugito tore through the flesh much faster now, knowing each weak point and managed to tear off two heads before jumping off. B launched bolts of lightning at it, blowing apart some of the heads while Roshi concentrated.

They slowly forced the monster to back up, it slipped, its claws not made for the muddy terrain they wre fighting on, none of the heads saw the ditch in the ground until it was too late. Finally, the time came.

"Move out of the way!" Roshi called to his siblings, they backed away from the now trapped monster, nine heads were missing but had already begun to grow again, Roshi snarled, in his hands was his spear but it was completely covered in lava. He brought the bottom of the spear to his lips, making it look like a mix between a lava lamp and a long tin whistle. He then blew into it and a stream of lava was sent flying towards the trapped monster, the stream hit it and it screamed in agony before being silenced, Roshi stopped his stream. There was nothing there except a pool of lava.

"Well…" B said, looking at her brother in awe, "I think we can all agree… this is all Garra's fault, you see."

Speaking of, Garra and Utakata were having a good time, no monsters had caught them, and they could jump through trees like they used to at home. The trees were smaller granted, but they still felt the nostalgia. The two of them were actually enjoying themselves, chatting away about unimportant things. They had made it to Elk mountain, and were making good progress, so they decided to take a break for lunch, taking out some of the food they had pre-packed, chicken sandwiches, and a side of coke.

"Well, what do we do if we don't find him hear?" Garra asked

"We look in the other camp, if he's not there… he'll be in one of them." Utakata replied, between bites.

"Yeah, Apollo said he had a feeling about it." Garra said, trying to convince him.

"When did he say this?" The six tailed jinchuuriki asked.

"A while ago, Fu told me." He supplied.

"Right, okay." He said, trying to hide the slight hurt that no one had told him this, he had been going under the assumption that this whole thing was one big wild goose chase, but when a god, the god of prophecies, says it will happen, well that's pretty close to evidence.

"Anyway, we should get going." The redhead said, standing up and brushing crumbs off him.

"Yeah, at the pace we're going…" He stopped, there was noise coming from the underbrush. They both turned, ready to face their opponent, and weren't disappointed.

A Dracaena slithered into their clearing, a net in one hand and a trident in the other, she reached nearly ten feet in height and her scales glinted green as the sun hit them, perfect for this environment, why she hadn't set up a trap was anyone's guess. She hissed at them, before speaking, "demi-godsss, your blood ssshall feed me for ssome time."

Garra raised his hands, his sand rising with them, streams of sand hovered around the two demi-gods ready to react to her next move. She moved with surprising grace and speed, it was almost like she was swimming through the ground, tails trailing behind her, Garra's sand almost didn't react in time.

As she raised her trident, the sand moved and caught it, but the creature wasn't as surprised as she should have been. She dropped the spear immediately and managed to go around the sand, she was behind Garra before he knew it, but his sand stopped her strike. A small knife, previously hidden was in her hands, it flew and was caught by the sand, but it seemed he hadn't been paying enough attention, one of the tails that was in front of him snapped like a whip. Before the sand could stop it, it struck true and Garra was thrown back, into the waiting arms of the monster, fangs at the ready.

Garra was surprised but as the monster was about to catch him, he was ripped out of the air, Utakata caught him and they were sent to a tree, where he landed. The branch groaned, but held firm, Garra over his brother's shoulder in a fireman's lift. He set him down and he looked annoyed.

"What are you doing? She was playing into my hand. I was going to use my-"

"Shh, don't give her the advantage." He said, "there's something suspicious about this, she knew how your sand worked, and had found a way around it."

"Your saying someone told her my weakness?" He asked, a frown marred his face, the only people outside the jinchuuriki who had any idea of his powers were the gods.

"No, well I'm not sure. She knew some of your abilities, she clearly didn't have a plan for what happened next, so she only knows some of your skills." He looked at the snake who had been eyeing them warily, "she's testing us, or rather, her boss is. They're trying to find a weakness, what are the chances that she was this prepared?"

"Low." Garra said, he then glanced at the monster, "if we're being tested, then someone is wary of us." Utakata nodded, "well then, let's give them something to be wary of." He raised his hands and the earth shook, the snack kept her balance, but looked down warily, then the earth exploded, sand immersed the clearing, the snake woman in the centre, she tried to get out, but the sand was moving like a whirlpool.

Garra then moved his hands and the sand circled around the snake, "sand binding coffin." He said, The only part of the woman visible was her face and her tails, which wriggled like worms, "sand waterfall funeral." The sand imploded, instead of the usual blood exploding outward, it appeared as if the snake had disappeared, until they noticed the slight golden tinge to his sand.

"Who would be testing us like this." Garra said, watching as the sand made its way back under ground, he shifted the dirt about, making it look like it was back to normal, before his normal sand reappeared in bag form once more.

"No idea, but the chances that they're an Olympian is low, the only possible choices being Zeus, Ares, Demeter, Hermes or Dionysus. Zeus may be annoyed at his wife's… infidelity, sorry."

"No problem."

"Or my existence, it's not secret he hates his brothers children, but this is unlikely, if he kills me, he has too much to lose, the same with you. Ares may be a choice, he loves any conflict, but he wouldn't leave it at this I don't think. Demeter is relatively peaceful the only reasons she's a suspect is that she is one of the few of them without one of us as a kid, same with Hermes, but that is unlikely. Dionysus is currently grounded, so I doubt it was him."

"So, who was it if not an Olympian? One of the other gods?"

"Doubtful, I don't think they would want to face the wrath of either Hera or Hades," 'assuming he cares.' He secretly though, "so I don't think any of them would do it."

"Maybe it is a group of monsters."

"Maybe." He said uneasily, "but they clearly don't know the full scope of our abilities, would they really sacrifice one of their own like that?"

"I don't know, they're monsters, maybe they thought they knew everything. We won't know until we find out more about them."

"Okay."

"We'll tell the others later tonight."

"Yeah, I wonder how Hana is doing, her hearing should be better soon."

"Yeah, only a few more days and she'll be fine, or so Fu says."

As it was, Hana was not doing fine, she was currently in an argument with her two sisters, both of whom were siding against her.

"You cannot go out." Yagura said, "you're not fully healed yet, you won't be for a while, so you have to stay here until you're healthy again."

"I'll be fine, I just want a change of scenery, maybe go find something interesting to do." Hana said, she had been going mad trapped in the ship, the only entertainment being B's boombox, something she couldn't even enjoy since she was still hard of hearing.

"No," Fu said, "you can't, if something happens… you can't go."

"What if you come with me?" She asked.

The two of them were contemplating, they too were getting kind of sick of the same old stuff, but Fu was constantly tired from healing her sister, and Yagura felt obligated to protect them even if Hana repeatedly said it wasn't her fault.

"I don't think I'll be much good in a fight now." Fu said, she was right, she had only taken a break from a healing session an hour ago, and was feeling exhausted. Normally if she ever felt tired she would get back to normal in a matter of minutes, one of the perks of being a jinchuuriki, but this was a different kind of tired. It was like using a muscle you have never used before, the only thing she could compare it to, was the first time she used her wings. Even then, she was better at the normal rate of a jinchuuriki.

"I could take you alone." Yagura said, though she sounded unsure.

"Yeah, now let's go." Hana said, she absentmindedly reached for her hat, before remembering she had kept it off, along with her face mask. She hadn't been covering her face since she had been injured, her siblings hadn't judged her like she feared, which was a relief, but now she was going to be going out in public. "Where's my hat and mask?"

Fu looked torn for a second, she then winced, "I'm sorry sis, but you can't wear it."

"What? Bu-but I-"

"I don't want there to be any chance of something knocking into it, the last thing we need is for something to re-open. You don't need to worry about infection, though, dad said that this isn't as much healing as a small blessing, basically I'm blessing you, and you're being healed by it. It's so slow because demi-gods can't bless like regular gods, so I'm doing it a little bit at a time."

"But, I'm…" Hana looked terrified.

"Hana, it won't be like in the elemental nations." Yagura tried, "besides, why would you care what some mortal thinks?"

"Yeah, yeah your right." Hana lied, the urge for a change of scenery was too promising, she could deal with some mortals, right?

So they set off, Fu went to get some much needed sleep, and Hana put on most of her armour, with the obvious exception of her face. They exited the ship and walked across the water, disturbing a few nymphs from a nap, but otherwise going unseen, there was very few trees and the hot sun beat down on them. Hana almost wanted to take of some more of her armour, but decided against it. They walked around, getting to the road and following it, there was no one else around, probably smart, the mid-day sun would burn most other people, but Hana was a daughter of Hephaestus, it would take a whole lot more to burn her. Yagura's father was the god of the oceans, he gave her a natural defence from the burning sun, even so, Apollo must have been annoyed today. So annoyed that the air around them shimmered and anything with metal on it looked like a light bulb from all the light reflected off it.

The two of them wondered down the road, following it until they came to the first big building, a shopping centre. Both of them were getting a bit sick of Apollo at this point, so they decided that, just for the sake of being inside, when they entered a few employees, door greeters, glanced up at them, like they hadn't expected anyone to be around. They stared at Yagura for a moment, before their gaze fell to her sister. The two of the female gagged for a minute, before trying to compose themselves, while the two male employees looked slightly disgusted but like the girls, tried to compose themselves, neither of the two groups could stop sneaking glances at Hana.

Hana shuffled nervously at their looks, bad memories coming back to her of her days in Iwa, Yagura looked pissed.

"Can we help you?" One of the male employees said, but to Hana it sounded like a muffled whisper, it took her a moment to realise something. Her sisters had been shouting every time she was around, she thought her hearing was improving a lot more, apparently, she was wrong.

"No, we're just browsing." Yagura said, her voice loud enough for Hana to hear, the employee's jumped at the loudness of her, clearly not expecting her to be shouting.

"Okay, umm, call us if you need anything." He said, before the two of them took off, Yagura glaring at them as she passed.

The two of them passed by several shops, ignoring them immediately as they were all beauty related, Hana didn't want to go anywhere near those shops. They walked around until they came to an ATM, realising that they needed to grab some money if they actually wanted to buy anything, the whipped out their cards and left the machine with a hundred bucks.

"Where do you want to go?" Yagura asked.

"Is there an electronics store about, I've been needing parts for a while, I've been planning on incorporating something into my armour." Hana said. They searched for a while before finally coming across a small shop, it looked new, and was called 'The Forge' pretty simple naming choice.

The inside of a store was well organised, computers were in one side, TV's on another, gaming consoles took up the back wall. What drew Hana's attention though, was a large basket that took up the middle of the room, going from floor to ceiling. There were some holes in it, allowing her to see what was inside, but how the stuff stayed inside with such large holes in the side was a miracle. It was the most random assortment of equipment too, just in one hole, she could see circuit boards, hammers, soldering irons and saws.

Yagura said she was going to check out the TV's, claiming that if they were going to be on the boat for a while longer they would at least have some entertainment. Hana walked over to the basket, she circled it, looking through the holes to see what else was there, it just got even weirder. A robotic arm, a music monitor, a bike pump, a drill, and a band facer? How would anyone put that in there, never mind take it out.

"Something interesting." A hard voice said, loud enough for her to hear, she twirled around and came face to face with an employee. For a moment she was shocked with his appearance, he had blisters all over his face, his lumpy malformed face. She couldn't see his jaw because of the thick beard covering it, but from the looks of it, it was just as lumpy as the rest of his head. His shoulders were wonky, like they were racing to get away from his face, the one on the right was winning, a few inches lower than the left. Looking down, she saw that one of his legs was missing, in its place, a prosthetic one made out of bronze?

Hana felt like she recognised him, but couldn't place the face, one would remember a face like that, a face only a mother could love, or not in his case, "Hephaestus?" she questioned.

"Shh," He looked up like he was expecting the ceiling to attack, "don't say my name, he's mad enough that Apollo has been visiting his daughter. Just call me-" He was trying to think up an alias, but Hana interrupted.

"Dad?" The god looked taken aback, but a small smile appeared, though mostly hidden by his beard.

"Yes, call me dad." He said.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I…" He looked surprised for a minute, "I just wanted to meet you."

"Oh…"

"And apologise." She looked confused, "you… you look like me." He sounded sad, "and I know that must be hard, you shouldn't have to feel ashamed of yourself."

"I… you don't need to apologise for that." Hana said, sounding uncomfortable, "it's who I am, I'm your daughter."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not the best at talking with others." The god admitted, "machines, I can handle, but you humans-"

"I'm not human," Hana said, "I'm a jinchuuriki."

"That doesn't make you any less-"

"It does." She looked away, "they never treated us like humans, to them we were weapons, monsters, things. I don't want to be put in the same boat as them." She said, then turned to him, "if they don't think of us as human, why should we?"

Hephaestus looked surprised at her words, before he took a deep breath, "I guess I understand where you're coming from, for a long time I wasn't considered to be the same as any of the other gods. My own mother…" He scowled, "You're right, though, you're not human, you're more than them, you're a demi-goddess, your partially divine, that means you're above them. No matter what they say or think."

Hana was silent for a while, before she looked back at him, "thanks, dad." She said, they sat in silence for a while, "can I ask something?" The god nodded, "why do you have the ancient laws, they just seem to make your lives miserable, you can't talk with your kids, you can't save them, it just seems…"

"Cruel." She inclined her head, he snorted, "they are cruel, many of us wish we could break them, but, the consequences would be too great."

"What consequences? You're gods."

"Yes, and we argue, just look how… Never mind, point is, if us gods fight, bad things would happen, the laws are there to make sure that there are no fights, or at the very least, no wars. In theory, we don't interfere with the mortal world, none of us destroy said world if we fight. These days though…"

"Why, what's going on?" Hana asked, rather perplexed.

"Nothing, nothing that concerns you." He sighed.

"But maybe we could help, is there something going on with the gods?"

"Please, just stay out of this, we're keeping you out of this for a reason." He said, "besides, if all goes well with that son of Poseidon, everything will be fine."

"Son of Poseidon? Yagura's brother?"

"You've met?" He looked slightly surprised.

"Not officially, Poseidon brought Yagura to see him, we all just sort of tagged along." Hana explained, "after that he gave her the boat."

"Ah yes, fabulous piece of machinery, if I do say so myself."

"You made it?"

"Of course, granted I didn't make the engine, Poseidon's got a patent on that, one of his cyclopes kids made it, interesting concept, but takes too long to charge and overheats." He winced as he looked up to her again, "and is very unsafe, only meant to be used by his kids."

"Yeah…" She didn't know what to say.

"So, how long until you're fully healed?"

"A few more days. How do you know by the way?"

"We keep tabs on you, I think you're siblings have had a few visitors, not all of them, but Apollo hasn't been too subtle. The only reason I haven't visited earlier was because you haven't been in my domain, I am bending the laws doing this, but I'm not breaking them. Though it's still best not to let anyone know."

"Right."

"I know you're heading to the… other camp, but be careful, they're not the friendlies people, and I'm not too sure how they've received the two who came with you."

"Temari and Kankuro?"

"Yeah, my mother's children." He looked slightly annoyed, "I never thought she'd ever have demi-gods."

"What do you mean they mightn't have been well received."

"That camp is very traditional, I'm not sure how two children of a goddess who, in the past, has been very against demi-gods."

"You mean they might kill them?"

"I'm not sure, my mother would likely put a stop to that before they were hurt, but they have a tendency to go by their silly little traditions before anything else." He took another look at the ceiling, "I'd best get going, I think he'll notice me if I'm here any longer, though he's been busy, he still tries to keep an eye on your group. All of us do, just remember that, and if you ever need help, just ask, I mightn't be direct, 'no direct contact' and so on, but I'll try to give you an idea."

He then disappeared in a pillar of flame, before the jinchuuriki could think of anything else to say, from the flames a note came out though:

 _Help yourself to anything in the store by the way,_

 _just give this card up to the checkout._

Beneath was a discount card that read '100%' all purchases, even though they had their own money, it was nice to know her dad cared. She looked at the card and then to the large basket in the middle of the room, a smile on her face.

Yagura was annoyed. As she had walked through the TV section, an employee came, and tried to flirt with her. It was infuriating, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. As she tried to explain for the last time that she wasn't interested someone cleared their throat, the two turned and Yagura found her father glaring at the boy, who turned an interesting shade of white at the very large, intimidating god.

"Hey dad." She said, taking great satisfaction in the boy becoming even paler.

"Hey." The boy scrambled off, and the god smiled.

"What are you doing here?" Yagura asked in confusion, "not that I mind or anything."

"I just felt like you could use some help," he tried to smile but it looked forced, the jinchuuriki noticed that he looked tired, not that he looked any different, just in his demeaner.

"You came all this way just because some boy was trying to flirt with me."

"Yes." He said bluntly.

"Thanks." There was a short pause, "why do you look so tired?" she finally asked.

He smiled again, once more it looked forced, "just some stress, nothing to worry about." He said, though she could tell he was lying, you'd think a few thousand years would make you a good liar.

"Dad, you can tell me." She said.

"It's nothing for you to worry about, your brother is on a quest, I'm just a little worried about him. Right now, he's on a train for Denver."

"Where's he headed?"

"L.A. he is going to visit my brother." He scowled.

"Wait, what?! You mean… umm, your brother… downstairs?"

"Yeah," he scowled again.

"Why, what's the quest?"

He seemed to realise something and shook his head, "nothing you need get involved in."

"Come on, tell me, maybe we can help, we're heading in the same direction, sort of, if he needs a lift, we can get him a bit further, probably only as far as Las Vegas, I think that's where the stop after this one is, then we're at the sea, and it'll be smooth sailing from there. It'll speed up his journey and he won't have to wait long."

"I don't want you involved in this quest Yagura." He said.

"We aren't getting involved, just giving him a lift, we're going in the same direction anyway, and we've got a little more room, now that the others are on ahead."

Poseidon looked torn, "if you promise me that you won't get involved in this quest any more, and you promise to make sure he doesn't reveal the nature of the quest, that includes your siblings. They can't know what the quest is about, none of us want to get you involved in this."

"Fine, we won't pry about the details. So where will we meet him?"

"I'll try and send someone to him, and tell him to meet you at… the train station, do you think you could pick them up?"

"Yeah. I'll tell the other two about this, I'm glad I get to meet him."

"Yeah." Poseidon smiled, it looked like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Right." Another pause, "hey, I don't suppose you could recommend any good movies, I think I'm going to invest in a TV, the boat doesn't have much on it at the moment."

"A yes, the boat, how is it?"

"Great, thank you so much for it. It's been such a help getting us to the Roman-" she paused, remembering that the gods shifted forms at the mention of their other personality, her father didn't.

"Don't worry, we can normally handle our separate forms, just sometimes saying certain things surprise us and we switch forms. Besides, Neptune's busy right now I think." He looked a bit miffed for a moment though, "never was a fan of Rome though. They didn't like me too much either." He then grinned, "oh yes, you're looking for movie recommendations, hmm."

"Yeah, back in the elemental nations I saw a few of them, but here, they look so much better, bigger and grander."

"Yes, your old world was lacking in some things."

"Old-"

"But I have the perfect movie for you." He opened his palm and a DVD box appeared in his hands, she read the cover and was confused.

"Monty Python: the life of Brian?" She asked.

"Yes," he smirked, "it's set during Roman times, one of the best movies ever in my opinion. My nephew really out-did himself with Monty Python." He gave a soft chuckle, "it seems… appropriate." He smirked, "I know you'll love it." He then materialised some more DVD's, "the entire Monty Python collection, for your journey back."

"Thanks." She took the box, "are they historically accurate or…" she stopped at her father's chuckles.

"Yes, well all of the Roman scenes are, the rest is mostly made up."

"Well thanks." She turned around and saw Hana start to walk away to another section, a slip of paper in her hands, "I'd best be going." She said as she turned and ran up to her sister.

Poseidon waved her away, but lingered, watching as she ran up and pulled her sister into a big bear hug before pointing to the TV's. He smiled at the sight.

"You shouldn't have done that." Hephaestus said as he appeared in a burst of flame.

"They're not getting involved, just giving them a lift, nothing wrong with that."

The god of fire scowled at the water god, "they are not getting involved in this, you are tempting fate."

"I am not, they will not get involved, I made sure that she promised not to."

"But not on the Styx?"

"Not necessary, I trust her, and him, I'll make sure Percy doesn't tell her anything."

"You are playing a dangerous game uncle, you already have many on the council against you, do not risk the allies you have on this."

"Is that a threat?"

"No, a warning, the council agreed to keep them out of it, they don't need to put up with our petty squabbles, and separating them would be cruel. The wouldn't pick sides between themselves and they have more loyalty to themselves than us."

"I know, you forget that I voted against bringing them into this too. The only one who wanted them involved was Ares, and we know his reasons."

"All I'm saying is be careful, you would turn the whole council on you, regardless of how right you are."

"I know, but I trust my children."

"You better hope that's what Zeus sees."

 **A/N: Man that was a long chapter, i think it is something over ten-thousand words, so I hope you're happy with this. Anyway, I probably won't be uploading until after next week, I've got exams and coursework, and need to focus on it, so I'll be back on the tenth, see you then, and I hope you enjoyed this so far.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I'm back, so I'd just like to have a heads up here, it gets dark in this chapter, so, yeah. Also, I'll be updating again soon.**

As soon as Percy was out of the arch Whiskers turned back to the firestorm heading straight for his face, this was a problem as Whiskers was severely allergic to fire. Time seemed to slow down, Whiskers saw that there was no way out, he was backed up to the hole, and there was no room for him to jump out of the way of the fire, even if there was, there wasn't enough time. His movements were sluggish as the poison raced through his veins.

The fox stared at the fire before closing his eyes and taking a breath. The fire reached him, and he winced, the fire suddenly parted though, Whiskers opened his eyes and found himself in the eye of the storm, everywhere he looked, it was fire, like a sunset up close.

Eventually it died down, and Whiskers found the grinning face of Echidna turning to shock as she found the not so roasted fox. Even the Chimera looked confused, its head tilted like a dog trying to figure out why his dinner was uncooked.

"T-that's impossible!" The mother of monsters yelled.

"Yeah, well-" Whiskers then fell forward, looking like he had run a marathon, the poison still burned through him.

"It matters not, we've done what we came to do son, the son of Poseidon is gone, now you can have a little snack." She gestured to the fox and the Chimera came over, the lion head salivating.

Before the monster could bite down, Whiskers shrank down to the smallest he could and jumped out the arch, he clung to the side and made his way to the top of the arch, where he collapsed. He whined to himself as he tried liking the wound, the poison was killing him, why he had lasted so long was a mystery, but unless there was some divine intervention-

As he said this there was a flash of light, the fox winced and closed his eyes until the brightness disappeared, when his eyes readjusted, his wish was answered. There stood a battle scared man, with a crew cut and sunglasses, he was probably the biggest man Whiskers had ever seen. He scowled a little, muttering to himself, "stupid barnacle beard, the plan was working perfectly. Good thing he's here, the perfect plan B."

He then gave a vicious grin, at the downed fox, before removing a small dog carrier, the fox blinked in an effort to stay conscious, but one thought ran through his head, "Ares." He managed to mutter, then he blacked out.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the river, Percy was figuring out some things about his powers, he was breathing underwater and had healed. A few seconds after this discovery he looked back up to the dim glow of the surface.

"What happened to Whiskers?" He nearly shouted out. His voice sounded like recording, it echoed and sounded older.

A soft woman's voice, almost like his mother's replied, "first things first, what do you say to your father?"

Percy looked around for the owner of the voice, finding none. He then swallowed the uncomfortable lump in his throat, "thanks." He said, trying to hide the sadness in his voice, "thank you… father."

Tears prickled his eyes, the thoughts of Whiskers sacrifice going through his head, how could he even face Annabeth now, what would he say? 'Sorry but your fox is dead, it's all my fault.' That wouldn't go over well with her, she loved that fox, he was her best friend.

A riverboat churned the water above him, swirling the rubbish about making small hurricanes of rubbish. He looked up to see it, as he looked he saw his sword, not five feet away from him. The gleaming hilt sticking out of the mud. Percy tried to wipe the tears away, maybe if he focused on the sword he could stop thinking about the fox.

The woman's voice came again: "Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you."

"Where are you." Percy asked the water.

Through the gloom though, Percy saw her, a woman the colour of water, a ghostly form in the current, floating above the sword. She had long hair that billowed out, her eyes were barely visible but had the same green as Percy's own.

The lump came back, she looked so much like… "Mom?" He said, his lip quivering slightly.

"No child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as helpless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica."

"What?"

"It is your fathers will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence."

"But…" Percy was sure that the woman before him was his mother, "who, how did you-"

"I cannot stay, brave one," the woman said, she reached out, and the current brushed his face. "You must go to Santa Monica! And Percy, trust your sister, she will help you on your journey."

Her voice faded away.

"Sister? What sister? Wait!"

She attempted to speak once more, but her sound was gone. The image melted away, he had lost his mother once again.

He took a deep… breath? First, he needed to find Annabeth, tell her about… he couldn't even think about it, tears finally escaped him and he fell to his knees, sobbing.

He stayed there for a few minutes, wallowing in his failure, after some time he decided to brave it, he had to tell Annabeth, she deserved to know what a failure he was.

He waded through the mud over to Riptide and grabbed the hilt. If the chimera was done with Whiskers… He swallowed the lump in his throat again, determined not to cry, maybe he and its mother would be waiting to finish him off. At the very least, mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who blew a hole in the arch. They'd probably have some questions for him if they saw him.

He capped the sword and stuck the pen in his pocket, "thank you father," he once again said to the murky polluted water. He then kicked up through the muck and made a break for the surface, he came ashore near a floating McDonald's and saw every emergency vehicle in St. Louis surrounding the arch. Helicopters circled overhead, the onlookers paid him no attention, except a little girl who spotted him.

"Mama! That boy walked out of the river." She said.

"That's nice, dear," the mother said as she watched the ambulances.

"But he's dry!"

"That's nice, dear."

There was a news reporter talking to the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the arch."

Survivors, Percy visibly relaxed, maybe everyone was ok. But then he thought back to Whiskers, even the fox couldn't survive a fireball to the face. He hoped Grover and Annabeth were ok, he didn't want to lose anyone else on the quest.

He attempted to push through the large crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.

"… an adolescent boy," another reporter said, "Channel five has learned that the surveillance camera's show and adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities-"

He kept his head down and tried to back away. The long way around the police perimeter, officers and news reporters were everywhere. He'd almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated out, "Perrr-cy!" He turned and got tackled into a hug by Grover. "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

Annabeth tried to look angry, but she seemed a little relieved to see him too, she glanced around, probably looking for Whiskers. "We can't leave you two alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"Whiskers he… he pushed me." Percy said, not knowing how to tell Annabeth.

"That idiot! That's six hundred and thirty feet! When I get my hands on him…"

"Gangway!" A cop shouted, and the crowd parted, a few paramedics hustled put, rolling a woman on a stretcher, she was the mother of the little boy on the observation deck, she was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua-"

"Okay ma'am," the paramedic said soothingly, "just calm down, your family is fine. The medicine is starting to kick in."

"I'm not crazy! This boy and his fox were fighting the dog. Then the fox kicked the boy out the hole, and got burned to a crisp, the monster disappeared, and the fox did too!" Then she saw Percy, "There he is! That's the boy!"

He turned away quickly and left the crowd with the others following.

"What was she talking about? Was that the Chihuahua in the elevator?" Annabeth demanded, "and what did she mean by the fox getting…" She trailed off and seemed to have an epiphany, Percy winced and turned away from her, she grabbed his shoulder. "Percy." She said, her tone now calm, frighteningly calm, "where is Whiskers?" Percy refused to look at her, she turned him to face her forcefully, "Percy, where is Whiskers?" She asked, her tone now deadly.

"He's… he's gone Annabeth." Percy said, her breath hitched. "He tried to fight the Chimera, the woman was Echidna. Me and him fought the chimera for a bit, it blew a hole in the monument, it's tail bit me and the same happened to Whiskers. It was going to light the two of us up, but he… he stood in front of me. It was about to burn us, but he turned and threw me into the water. I'm sorry Annabeth, I was too weak…"

"He can't be gone." Annabeth whispered, she looked shell-shocked, "he can't be. He promised." She looked like she was about to cry.

"Annabeth… he… he was a hero." Percy said.

"No… No, you're lying. He's alive." She said, trying to hold tears back.

"I'm sorry." Percy said, his heart was wrenching, it was all his fault, if only he had been stronger.

"No." She whispered, tears flowing freely.

Suddenly he heard something that made him freeze, "Percy Jackson. That's right Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago, and the young boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

Percy and Grover helped an unresponsive Annabeth to her feet and half dragged her out of the crowd, and slipped into an alley.

"We need to get out of town." Grover said quietly, Annabeth hadn't responded to either of them, they sat in the alley for a few minutes while Percy told Grover the rest of the story, in an effort to get Whiskers death of their minds. "Then we need to get to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad. As for a sister… I don't know, your dad has a few immortal daughters, but… We'll have to figure it out as we go."

Somehow, they made it to the Amtrak station without being spotted. They managed to board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. They trundled west as darkness fell, police lights pulsed in the St Louis skyline behind them, Annabeth was silent as they left her first friend behind.

They sat in silence for the entire train journey, none of them wanting to say anything, Annabeth sobbed lightly but didn't speak. She eventually drifted off and slept, but she seemed to be having nightmares, she muttered "all my fault." And "I'm sorry Whiskers."

(With Fu, Yagura and Hana)

"You what?!" Fu asked. Yagura and Hana had just returned from their trip and had woken Fu up from her nap, Fu was going to get to work on healing Hana more, but Yagura dropped the bomb on the two of them.

"Calm down, we're just giving them a lift, nothing more." Yagura said, trying to calm down her sister.

"Calm down, we are busy looking for Naruto and you agreed to help some random stranger-"

"He is my brother, and I didn't agree."

"Then why are we talking about this, if you didn't agree then-"

"I volunteered." Yagura said, at Fu's shocked expression she continued, "he's on a quest, we don't get involved at all, dad said that as long as we don't get involved he won't get involved in any of our business."

"It doesn't matter, you don't know him, and you don't owe him anything."

"He's my brother."

"That you've never met, I've known you my whole life, who are you going to trust more?"

"It's not about trust, you don't even need to talk to him, he'll be with us until we get to the sea, then we will go our separate ways."

"No! I will not let some random stranger on to the boat!"

"He is my brother, and this is my boat!"

Fu looked shocked, but before she could say anything else Hana spoke up, she had been installing all of the new equipment they got from their shopping trip, "Fu, it will be fine, as long as he stays out of our way then it will be fine. What if it was your brother? Would you help him then?"

"I…"

"Look, it doesn't matter, I already said I would, it won't make a difference to us, we meet up with the others at the next jump, and we all go to Santa Monica." Yagura said, "it won't make much of a difference."

Fu looked annoyed, but Hana gave her a look and she gave in, "fine, but they get off as soon as we get to the sea."

"Yes." Yagura agreed, "now, heal up Hana, you said your nearly done?"

"Yeah, just a few more days," Fu said huffing.

"Why are so annoyed about this anyway, you're normally the one coming up with things I'll disagree with." Yagura asked.

"I… it doesn't matter." Fu said as she brought Hana over to sit down and began healing, her normally soft song sounding harsher than usual.

Garra and Utakata had fought off quite a few monsters on their journey, none of them really posed much of a challenge, but they were still guarded. Each of the attacks were like the first, the creature seemed prepared to fight them, they kept trying to find new ways around Garra sand, but Garra finished the fights as quick as he could, the longer the fight the longer they had to find a weakness. Utakata for his part was hiding all of his abilities, not that they would help without water release, and kept trying to find any way that someone could be watching them and trying to find a link between the monsters used. There was none.

They hadn't told the others in fear that their ability to contact the others was brought to light, but had told group B to keep their guard up. Other than the strange amount of attacks they were subject to, the two of them had noticed something strange about the weather, it was getting stormier. Garra was the first to notice, coming from a land where there is sun almost every day, it was strange to see so many clouds. Sure, he figured that the weather could be bad, but the fact that there had been almost perfect weather for them for the past few months, and it was in the middle of summer… something was strange.

Now though, the two of them were setting up camp, the clouds above them kind of resembled the swirling symbol of the Uzumaki clan, Naruto's clan. They had been missing him for so long now, it was becoming hard to remember his face, not just the mask he wore.

"Do you remember when Naruto told us about how he painted the Hokage monument?" Garra asked as he prepared the fire.

"Yeah." His brother snorted, "he was so proud of himself," he paused and looked up into space, "that was so long ago." He muttered.

"Yeah." Garra agreed, "we'll find him." He said, "if he's not here, then he'll be at the other camp."

Utakata paused, "have you thought about what you'll say to your brother and sister?"

"Not really." Garra said, he paused what he was doing, "to be honest I haven't thought about them for a long time."

"You never really talked about them." Utakata said, "what are they like? We never really talked, I only met them when we were with Lupa and we never had many chances for conversation."

"They're… strange." Garra said, "when I was younger I thought they hated me, but they were just afraid of me, I didn't do much to help that, they tried, but I just didn't notice it. I don't know if I remember right, but I think… I think they came to visit when I was younger, before my uncle… before he tried to kill me, I think they used to play with me. It was nice." He smiled to himself. "Kankuro's a bit of an idiot sometimes, but he tries, and Temari, she was always trying to help, after I stopped being such a psychopath around them at least. When I became Kazekage, they helped so much. I remember-"

The snapping of a twig in the forest stopped their conversation, they were immediately ready for fighting any monster that came. Garra's sand spread out, prepared to block anything, Utakata kept his eyes out for anything, his hand inched towards his pipe, but he forced himself to stop it.

Their shinobi reflexes saved them, they moved on instinct, jumping to the trees and avoiding the hailstorm of bullets that would have shredded them.

"Bullets?" Utakata questioned, the two of them shared a look, both coming to the same conclusion, "mortals." They said in sync.

They hopped between trees, before finding them, they were wearing camo gear and armour, military armour, or at least this worlds military. There were seven total, they didn't stand a chance, Garra raised his hands and the sand wrapped around their feet, they were soon wrapped up like flies in a spider web.

"Check to see if there are more." Garra said, neither of them gave away their positions, Utakata found three more and came back to Garra.

"Three, one o'clock, you want me to handle them?"

"No, you need to keep your abilities a secret, do any of them look in charge?"

"No, they're all the same."

Garra raised his arms and the ones in his trap were raised into the air, he followed his brother to where the others were and wrapped them in his sand as well. He then brought all ten of them back into their clearing, and turned them to face the him, Utakata waited in the shadows, hidden from sight. They counted them, ten all together, two women and eight men. Their faces were the only things visible and Garra looked into each and every one of their eyes. They all showed fear but that turned to anger when they saw that their captor was a 'child'.

"Now, are you going to talk, or are you going to give up all hope of walking, sitting or generally doing anything other than lay there in a pile of shit as you wait for someone to help you?" Garra asked, his voice a menacing monotone.

"We won't tell you anything! You don't scare us, even if you do have a few orbital sanders!" One of them shouted, it seemed the mist still affected them, even wrapped up in sand the mortal mind chose to see what it wanted. The man then started screaming as the sand encircling his torso was dyed red.

"You have now lost the ability to walk, next you will lose the ability to move your arms." The man screamed as Garra said this, "now talk." He said, "who sent you?"

"You bastard!" One of them said, but started screaming, as the sand surrounding him started twisting.

"That would be the first few layers of your skin being torn off, I do not believe you will ever be able to move again without being in immense agony." He said, his voice the same monotone as it was at the start, "and I'll have you know that my parents were married when I was conceived, anyone else want to insult the man who can destroy you with a thought?"

They stayed silent.

"Now, I want to know, who hired you?" Garra asked.

"We don't know, he never gave a name!" One of them shouted desperately, he then started screaming as a large amount of sand at his side was torn away, for a second bone was visible before his entire right side was red.

"You said he, you know a gender, that means you had someone to contact, now give me a name." Garra said, he clenched his fist slightly and they all groaned.

"Please, we'll talk, just let us go!" One said, only to scream in pain as the sand started twisting slightly.

"You are perfectly capable of talking right now, so I'd suggest you'd start telling me what I want to know." Garra said, "I'd say it quickly, because right now, I am remarkably calm about some random people who have attacked me. Just think, if this is me calm, imagine what I must be like when I am angry."

"Please, this was supposed to be an easy job, just take in some kids." The one who lost his arm said, becoming slightly delirious from blood loss.

"Take us in, those were live rounds, you are lying." Garra said, crushing the other arm, the man's sequels reached a higher note.

"They said there was no way to take out the kids without them!" Another said, "said that even unarmed they could take it!"

"Who's they?" Garra asked, he looked at the more intact prisoners, who were now only numbered to six.

"Our boss!" One yelled, "said to come out here and take care of you!"

"I'm still not hearing a name." Garra said, the soft crunch giving away that there were now only five able bodied soldiers still left.

"We don't know a name!" One of the females said, "nothing is done face to face, they send their people to us, give us a job and we do it, they send payment in cash and we never speak to each other, they never tell us why, only what they want done." Garra sighed as a small portion of the sand detached itself from her face, her head was now free, showing brown hair and a forgettable face. The sand hovered around her head, she looked happy, "thank you, please, just let us go and we'll-"

"You mentioned there were people who act as your contacts." Garra said, the sand in his hand morphed into a long strand, a small hand shape grabbed her chin and forced her mouth open. She shook her head and tried to tell him not to do it, "you're holding information back." Her eyes widened, and she tried to say something but was stopped as the sand that had been orbiting her head rushed in and went strait down her mouth.

She screamed, but this quickly became a gurgle, blood came out her mouth and she tried coughing, her eyes begged him to stop, but he just stared at her, unflinching.

"Not nice, now, I haven't done anything particularly bad, yet, all that has happened is that the inside of your mouth has been sanded down." A small strand of sand moved behind him and lifted one of the fallen branches from a tree, her eyes went to that as it hovered behind the son of Hera, she then switched her eyes between him and the wood. "Now, normally, sanding something down takes a while, but as your friends can attest, my sand works quickly, but more importantly, it can work precisely."

"Stop it!" One of the other soldiers shouted, but Garra shut him up by covering his mouth with sand, tears rolled down his face as blood appeared over his mouth. The woman saw this and shook her head desperately.

"Now, considering I've asked you to talk for some time and you haven't, I'm going to switch things up, you are all going to not make a sound until I stop talking and then you are going to tell me everything I want to know after, does that sound good?"

"Yes!" The other woman shouted, only to scream as the sand tightened around her.

"You are breaking the rules." Garra said, his tone shifting slightly and his face going into a scowl, "now, I'm going to repeat that and you're going to follow the rules, understood?" They all nodded, except the ones who were now unconscious from blood loss.

"Good, now…" Some of the sand that was on the ground lifted a branch and raised it so that all of them could see it. "As I was saying, my sand, can work precisely," the sand quickly carved a detailed and surprisingly anatomically correct human body, "so far, I've only shown what happens to the outside, missing limbs and such." The sand tore the arms off the doll and then the legs, before putting them back, holding them in place, "but as my… volunteer here will soon attest," he gestured to the woman who had spoken out who started squirming.

"No need to move." Garra said, "now, you and your friend over there seem very close, are you perhaps in a relationship?" The woman nodded, "well, how far into it are you? Friends with benefits?" She shook her head, "boyfriend?" She shook her head, "married?" Another shake, "fiancé?" She nodded, "ah, young love, that's nice, now then, why would a young couple like you hunt down children? Hmm? I suppose it doesn't matter. Now, you, and only you are going to speak, understood?" She nodded.

The sand was removed from her fiancé's mouth and Garra sighed, "for this though, I suppose there must be a little bit of a change up." The woman looked like she was being sick, but then the sand shot out of her mouth, several shades redder than it was before, her fiancé was then subjected to the same as she was, his mouth, now bloodied, held open was filled with sand.

"Stop!" The woman called, her voice hoarse, "please?"

"No, you see, I feel like if I were just torturing you, you would simply lie, but your poor fiancé, well… what's left of him by the end of the day is up to you I guess." He then seemed to contemplate something before a vicious grin appeared on his face, "now what should I do as punishment for speaking out?" The woman's eyes widened in shock, "hmm, how about…" The man stilled for a moment before writing in agony, "well, since he has two kidneys, I suppose he won't need that one on the right." The man's eyes filled with tears and the woman was about to speak out but stopped herself, realising she would only hurt him more.

"Now, tell me, who are the people who told you what to do?" Garra asked after the man stopped moving as much.

"We were never given names-"

"Oh, his health isn't looking too good-"

"Please, they gave us a number, after each mission, with the payment." Tears crept down her face as she looked at the man.

"Well then, that might come in handy, but if it is different each time…" The man squirmed some more and cried out in pain.

"Stop! Please, there's… there's a man, he's always the one to give out payment."

"Name?"

"He never gives it." As Garra raised his hand once more, "but I can tell you what he looks like." Garra stopped.

"Good," Garra said. The first man who spoke and lost his legs exploded into a mixture of blood and sand causing the others to cry out in shock. "Now," The sand that held him became the rough shape of human body, "descried him."

After a few minutes of the woman frantically describing him, the sand looked almost realistically human, the man had a shaved head, crooked teeth and a small goatee, dressed in a suit.

"Skin tone?" Garra asked.

"White." The woman asked, she was sending frantic looks to her husband who had stopped moving a while ago.

"Okay." Garra was about to got through some hand signs for a genjutsu, but Utakata put a hand to his shoulder, he got the message though, no showing anything else.

"That's him," the woman said, "and I swear, he's the only one I've ever seen. Now let us go!"

Before any of them could react the sound of two guns going off echoed throughout the forest, and both jinchuuriki fell back. There was a pause for a second before the two of them burst into smoke.

"Finally." Utakata said as he appeared from the forest once again, two men held by their collars, they both were groaning in pain, "I told you the clones were a good idea at the start. Seems they were waiting for the two of us to be in their sights." He then through the two of them to the ground where they were wrapped in sand.

"So, you were all just stalling?" Garra asked the others.

"No, please! We didn't know about them!" The woman shouted, similar calls came from the others.

"Well, I'm afraid your poor husband is pretty sad about this sort of treachery." Garra said, the woman chocked back a sob, "in fact you could say he's heartbroken." Garra grinned viciously and the man spasmed back to consciousness, screaming before blood poured from his mouth and he fell still, the woman cried out. "Don't worry, you'll be joining him, now." Garra then cleanly snapped her neck and she fell forward like a puppet whose strings were just snapped.

He then turned to the others, who shook their heads in fear, "I fear you have all outlived your usefulness," he said and the same happened to them. The ones left were the two snipers. "Now, as for you two, tell us who hired you?" The two of them shared tear-filled glances before biting down on something in sync, before the two jinchuuriki realised it they were foaming at the mouth, looking like they were in agony.

"Dammit." Garra said, dropping them to the ground. His sand gathered back into his bag.

"Well, we know now that someone is after us." Utakata said, "and a very rich someone by the looks of it."

"Yeah, but we only have a face, no name, no location, hell we only have the face of one of their grunts." Garra said.

"Well, it's something." Utakata then turned to Garra, "Garra, what you did, you acted like…"

"I-I know." Garra said, looking down, "it's just, it reminded me of… back then." Garra said. "sending assassins after me. Just like… Rasa."

"I understand." Utakata said, putting a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder.

"What do we do with the bodies?" Garra asked.

"We bury them." Utakata looked at the couple, what would their future have been if they hadn't tried to attack them. He had felt their deaths, each and every one of them, it must have been part of his father's power, but he could feel death. "We owe them that at least."

So, they did, they dug graves and Utakata even put drachma over their mouth in the ancient Greek tradition to pay the ferryman. They then offered a small prayer, the words coming easily to the son of the dead and buried the bodies. They didn't give a proper Greek funeral, but they did make crude headstones for them, carving the names on their dog tags onto one large stone before putting their bodies beneath the ground.

After they were done they decided to visit the mindscape, they both made clones to watch the perimeter, now that the unknown enemy knew of their ability they may as well use it. Instead of reaching the mindscape though, the son of the underworld found himself in a throne room, he somehow knew it to be his fathers, the obsidian marble and dark atmosphere seeming to fit the atmosphere of the dead.

In the centre of the room sat an onyx black throne, skulls of the dead decorating it, a few looked like they were moving. To the side there was another throne that was black but gilded with gold, shaped to resemble a flower.

In the throne sat a man, no, a god, Hades. He was wearing flowing robes, souls of the dead moaning as they shifted around the surface. For a first meeting the god of the dead sure knew how to pick an atmosphere.

"My son." Hades said, his voice was surprisingly smooth and calming to the jinchuuriki.

"Father." The demi-god bowed slightly but his father stopped him.

"You need not bow to be now." The god of the underworld said, "rise and come closer."

The pipe wielding jinchuuriki complied and approached his fathers throne, the god smiled, a glint in his eye as he admired his son.

"Why am I here?" Utakata asked.

"Because I have a favour to ask of you, and also, information regarding your… search." The god said.

"What information?"

"Patience, the information and the favour are the same, in fact, you are the one getting the most out of this."

"Fine, what is the favour?"

"You have siblings." The god said bluntly, "before you say anything, they are from the nineteen forties'. They have been trapped with the Lotus eaters, there time doesn't work right, a mere hour could be days. I have kept them there to keep them out of my brother's wrath, but now that both of them have broken their oaths and you are here I must ask you this favour. Look after them."

"What?" Utakata said, shock evident on his face, he had never expected to have siblings, biological ones, when he heard how many of them turned out, he thought it was for the best, but now…

Hades frowned, "my son, they are still children, they do not know about our world, I need someone to help them, they cannot remain with the Lotus forever. The only other choice is to leave them alone, they will not last without your help, if my brothers found out they would destroy them."

"You can't just expect me to drop everything for people I do not even know!" Utakata shouted, "they are my family. I can't just leave them, we need to find Naruto. Then-"

The god frowned for a moment, before he smiled, but it seemed forced, "ah, but that is where I can help." He said, he frowned to himself some more before continuing, "your siblings have found him. Or at least some of him."

"Wh-what?" The son of the dead stuttered.

"Yes," the lord of the dead grimaced, "your brother employed a strange way of cheating me. He should have died, fortunately, my agents are used to people trying to cheat death, unfortunately, he has been hidden from us. It was only when I turned my gaze to your siblings that I recognised he was there."

The jinchuuriki looked guarded, "you… you don't want to kill him?"

"No, think of this as a gift, but rest assured, he will not do it a second time, once he is… whole, be sure to tell him that."

Utakata grimaced before speaking, "he never meant to use it, it was experimental, he was trying to find a way to solve a problem we were all facing." The god grunted, "it was an attempt to save us, me. I hope you understand that." The gods gaze softened slightly.

"I bare him no harm, his death shall not come for some time." The god said, putting his head in the palm of his hands.

Utakata sighed, "I'll do it, and not just because of Naruto. I… I want to meet them, my siblings."

Hades looked mildly surprised before he spoke, "thank you." Hades actually smiled at the demi-god, "I am proud to call you my son." He conjured a mirror in front of his son and an image of two children appeared, a boy and a girl, both clearly came from an Italian descent, but their eyes stood out to the demi-god, they were the same eyes as his father. "These are Bianca and Nico Di Angelo, your siblings."

Utakata smiled slightly at the sight of them, he could see the resemblance between their father and his new siblings, before he frowned, "where will I find them?"

"They are in the Lotus Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas. Not too far from where you are headed, I believe your next stop will be in the Great Salt Lake, I will arrange transport for you, be careful though do not tell anyone about this, say that I gave you a lead, but do not tell of your siblings."

"You want me to lie to my siblings?"

"Yes," the god scowled, "I know you trust them, but I don't, I'm trusting you, do not betray my trust, for it will not be easily re-gained."

"I…" Thoughts of his siblings went through his head, could he lie to them? Of course, he could, this was for Naruto too, he'll tell them about the possible lead, but say he must go alone, "I understand."

"Good." His father said, before the dream faded into a mist and he found himself in the mindscape once more.

"What the hell happened to you?!" Fu asked, appearing in front of him, the others were beside him, looking equally annoyed, "where were you, when Garra showed up without you we thought-"

"I'm fine sis, better than fine actually." He said, a soft grin appearing on his face, "I have another lead on Naruto."

They looked shocked for a minute before that quickly changed to happiness.

"That's great!"

"Where is the lead?"

"When did you find this?"

"How?"

"Who told you?"

They all fired off questions so quickly he could barely make them out, he shushed them by shushing them.

"Okay," he began, "dad came to me, that's why I didn't show up for so long, he and I talked and he said that Naruto had cheated death." They looked a bit worried, "he was a bit annoyed but said he wouldn't kill him or anything, he then said about how he had managed to find part of him, said his agents are used to tracking down people who have cheated death. So, he told me where he was."

"Well, where is he?" Roshi asked.

Utakata thought for a minute, "I'm sorry, but I can't say." They all looked annoyed at that but he shushed them once more, "it was one of dad's conditions, I have to get him myself, it might take a while, and well, this is only something that can be done by a child of the underworld."

They all looked conflicted, finally it was Yagura who spoke up, "can you trust him?"

"What do you mean can I trust him, he's my dad," he glared at the daughter of Poseidon, "you trust yours." Utakata sounded annoyed and Yagura winced.

"It's not that, it's just your dad doesn't have the best reputation, what I mean is that he might be doing this for his own reasons."

"Like your dad has the best reputation, isn't he the guy who is responsible for the Odyssey?"

"Hey, that doesn't mean-"

"Then don't complain about my dad like that!"

"Look, calm down-" Yugito tried.

"No, I'm not listening to this, dad has given me a chance to find our brother, I'm taking it, alone, and none of you are going to stop me."

"Let's not-"

"No, I'm going and that's final, and I probably won't be back for a while."

"Wait-"

But Utakata had already left the mindscape, the others were silent for a bit before Garra sighed.

"Look," the sand shinobi said, "I'll talk to him tomorrow, he's just upset, I'll ask him for more details and then we will talk about it like rational adults, okay?"

"Yes." Was the collective response, but they were all a bit upset, they very rarely fought but when they did it was usually sorted out quickly, they all felt like this would be a long lasting problem.

(On a train headed to Denver)

"They are causing too much damage." An old woman said, measuring a thread, her sisters nodded in agreement with her, "It's bad enough with the foxes, they'll change everything just by being there. The other ones are actively changing the fate of a quest."

"Our hands are tied on this matter." Her sister said, "we should have never allowed any to hear that damnable prophecy."

"At least we managed to stop Delphi from spewing the actual prophecy. It's complicated enough as it is. Until we can figure out how to…" The final sister said.

"That is going to much harder than it should have been."

"At least this quest has been put back on track, so long as Ares can find a way to give the bag to the questers, the rest of it should fall into place." The first said.

"Damn Poseidon and his meddling." One of them muttered.

"Come sister, you know he just made a mistake."

"Yes, a mistake that is changing everything."

"It could be worse-"

"We agreed never to say that again. It's just too tempting." Grumbled one, glaring at her sister.

"Fine, at least…" Another glare, to which the woman sighed, "we can keep tabs on them."

"True, but we can still do nothing to them."

"Indeed." One of the sisters, then gained a grin, "but we can change the world around them." She raised a very large pair of scissors that would have definitely caused panic amongst the mortals on board without the mist.

"Yes, but they managed to connect with key players in the upcoming wars. They are all needed."

The sister with the shears smirked, "but they don't know that."

"No."

"Yes, it will keep them under control."

"Only the foxes, the others are free from our hands still, they are not close to anyone but themselves."

"For now, all I'm saying is that we wait, and then we tell them to stop getting involved in anything."

"And if they stay isolated?"

The woman with the shears plucked a sea-green thread from her sister's hands, "well then, we'll have to make sure that they connect."

"It will take time."

"Time, we do not have."

"But they have already ensured they will meet with him, and he has the unlikely ability to make an impact on all he meets, one already has feelings for him, not strong yet, but given time." She smiled, "after that, the others will follow."

"They may not be so predictable."

"We will try it." She shot a meaningful look to the door to their cabin, "it is all we can do for now."

 **A/N: Okay, so that's new, I know there were a lot of different character points of view changes, and it's getting pretty hard to keep track of where everyone is. I won't keep doing this for long, just so you know, well I hope I won't. Anyway next update will be soon, I have most of it done, I just need to make a few tweaks and then I'll upload it. Any questions don't be afraid to comment, or PM, hope you like the story so far. Oh, also, I know that this will completely change the Sea of Monsters story that I have done, but I'll be leaving it up for the time being, I kind of knew from this re-write that basically everything from that story would change, mostly just because it will happen sooner, so be happy about that. This note's been going on for a while so, see ya.**


	13. Chapter 13

Whiskers woke up and everything was fuzzy, he tried to shake off the dizziness but still felt nauseous, when he turned around he realised he was in a cage. The kind you brought pets around with. It was dark, and the only light came from the gaps between the thick glowing bronze bars, that had no place in a dog carrier. Whiskers soon realised that it was them that gave off the light, outside the bars was only darkness, but it looked like leather. He could hear a muffled voice, but he couldn't see anything other than the bars and the blood red walls of the cage that kept him trapped.

The fox was beginning to panic, what had happened? Where was Percy? What happened to the Chimera and Echidna?

The fox began to breath deep breaths, trying to calm down.

"Think, think. What happened?" He closed his eyes and put his head to the nearest wall, "the fire didn't hit me, I climbed onto the roof and collapsed, then Ares… Ares!"

Speak of the devil, the darkness disappeared, and the fox found his cage being held in front of the face of the god of war. Up close it wasn't any prettier, his scars looked old, but showed no signs of fading, his glasses were slightly melted at the sides and it looked like flames were emerging from the black orbs. The smell of blood and corpses was on his breath, like his favourite mouthwash was eau de gore.

"Well, well, looks like you're up earlier than expected." The god commented.

"What happened?" The fox asked.

"Well, after you ran from the Chimera," he grinned at the fox's glare, "I saved your life."

"Why?"

"Well, so that you'd be indebted to me." Ares grinned, "after all, with all of this war going on, I need a few things done in preparation. Since your friends are now too busy to help me-"

"What do you mean?" The vulpine asked.

The god scowled at him and the fox seemed to realise just how helpless he was right now; the god easily incinerate him. Instead he just scowled a bit more before speaking again, "Poseidon has decided to bring the most unstable weapons of mass destruction into this, after we agreed not to. Had to change up everything." He turned away and glared at something out of the fox's view, "can't go on with the current plan." He muttered, inaudibly to the fox.

"What?" The fox was growing nervous, what had happened to the questers?

"Oh nothing," Ares said, his tone filled with false cheer, he looked at the fox with a strange gleam, "but anyway, because everything got changed up, I won't get the chance to offer my quest to your friends, and I need someone to do this job for me."

"But we're in the middle of stopping a war-" The scowling god of war stopped that line of reasoning, "I'm on a quest, they need me."

"No, they don't, besides, you go visit old corpse breath and gi-get the bolt then what? You still need to make it back for the deadline, so, in exchange for you doing a few jobs for me, I'll sort your friends out with a ride back."

Whiskers had to admit, he had a point, he conceded to his argument. "What do you need done?"

"Well, since you owe me a debt already and I'm not one for handing out free gifts…" He gained a contemplative look, "you do me a few favours, and I'll arrange for your friends to get a ride back, hell, I'll even arrange for food and clothes beforehand as a guarantee. So how about it, you settle your debt, I give your friends food and clothing, as a… sign of good faith and then, you do me one last favour and they have their transport. Sound fair?"

The fox mulled it over for a minute before nodding, "yeah, seems pretty fair."

"Right, now swear an oath that you'll keep to your word, don't need you to be sneaking out of this deal."

"Only if you do." The god glared at him but then sighed.

"Fine, I swear on the Styx that so long as you hold up to your side of the bargain, I'll hold to mine." The sky rumbled like a drummer warming up.

"I swear on the Styx that I will do my part of this deal too." More thunder.

"Good." The god grinned menacingly.

"Now can you let me out so that I can tell my friends, where are we anyway?"

"Oh, no," the grin came back full force, "you're going to get started on your quest, I'll have a little chat with your friends, anything you want to say?"

"Why can't I talk to them? I'll be quick."

"Nope, you're going to start your quest, we're already in Denver, your friends aren't, now, go to Water land and pick up my shield. I'll meet you here, and I'll talk to your friends." The god opened the cage and dropped it, none too delicately, to the floor, Whiskers limped out, some of the pain from the bite still sending phantom flashes down his spine.

"My shield better be in tip top condition by the time I get back mutt." The god said before hopping on the bike Whiskers didn't realise was there and disappearing on the highway. The fox finally took in his surroundings, it looked like has at the entrance to an amusement park. While they were on the run the group of demi-gods had gone to one, it seemed like fun, but none of the rides allowed for the foxes so they only got to watch.

The fox walked into the park and looked around, it was abandoned, condemned even, there were a few construction notices around and a locked fence. He found the sign for the place, WAT RAD? Some of the letters had fallen off due to age but it looked like this was the place. He looked up at the midday sun and sighed, this was going to be a pain in the ass

The fox sighed and decided it was better to get it over with, now if only Ares had told him where the shield was in the park.

First things first the fox decided to sniff for monsters, you never know, Ares could be leading him into a trap. A quick sniff informed him that he wasn't going to be attacked by a monster lurking around, but there was a scent he was familiar with, he just couldn't place it.

"Well, time to get this over with." The fox said, jumping high enough to just skim the top of the fence, he landed and began his search.

(With the questers)

The overall atmosphere of the questers was sombre. They had just lost one of their members, to Grover he was an old friend who was always nice to him, even during his punishment; to Percy he was a good friend, even though they had only met recently, he also reminded the demi-god of Anchor, not surprising since they looked almost identical, only Anchor couldn't talk, or change size, or walk on walls; but it was Annabeth who was missing him the most, the fox had been there even before Thalia and Luke, before camp and he had always stayed with her, for her, it was like losing a limb.

The atmosphere was made worse when the god of war appeared.

Ares appearance was completely out of no-where, they just ignored the warning signs, the passengers seemed to freeze, and the air got hotter, several of the passengers were looking quite angry for no reason. When he walked in and sat down next to Percy the demi-god glared at him, his eyes seemed to glow green with anger, Annabeth even looked up and glared to, before realising who it was and turned to Percy, sending him a warning look.

"Lord Ares." She said, though it sounded like she was holding back an insult, "what do we owe the _privilege_." If he heard her tone, he didn't acknowledge it, instead he chose to throw a blue backpack at the son of Poseidon.

"That's a gift, from a friend," he said, his tone sounding smug.

"Who?" Percy asked, his tone even angrier than he looked.

"Your pet." He said, enjoying the looks of shock on their face.

"Whiskers?" Annabeth whispered out.

"Yeah." Ares said, enjoying the shock turn to anger on Percy's face.

"Where is he?" The child of the sea growled out.

"Oh, he's in Denver, doing a few errands for me." The god said, "probably for the best, it didn't look like he was going to live being with you lot."

Percy moved to stand up, but Annabeth stopped him, though it looked like she was struggling not to do the same.

"But, we have come to an agreement," the god continued, "he does a few errands to get out of the debt he owes me, he agreed to do another, to get you," he gestured at them with a lazy wave, "a lift back to New York."

"But he's part of the quest we-" Annabeth began.

"And look where that got him, you should know by now quests are done in threes, look what adding a forth quester did to your poor little friend, and whose fault was that?" He smirked viciously, taking off his glasses he looked right into Annabeth eyes, explosions danced in them, "but that must have felt horrible, I almost regret telling you now, but humour me, how did it feel to know that you got your friend, who only wanted to make you happy, who has done everything for you, with no thought for himself, how did it feel to get him killed?"

Now it was Percy's turn to stop Annabeth from attacking the god, she was fighting a lot harder than he had though, almost hitting Percy a few times. Though, the son of Poseidon didn't look so happy about stopping her, looking the god in the eyes had made him realise this is what he wanted. He watched her being held back with a grin, he winked at her as she stopped her struggles.

"Now take care, hope you enjoy meeting your new friends." The god of war said, his grin not fading.

"What friends?" Percy asked.

"Oh, didn't daddy send a message to you?" In the background the train began slowing down, the announcer saying that all passengers going to Denver needed to 'get off his fucking train!' It seemed Ares being here affected the mortals too.

"The woman said to trust my sister." Percy said, clenching his fists.

The god laughed for a few seconds, "if I were you, I'd be careful around them." His eyes had a strange gleam to them, "they are capable of destroying you with a single thought, and are psychotic killing machines, so be careful how much you trust them. The council has just decided to let them do what they want, and your parents will do nothing to help you." Then the train stopped, and the god left them.

Annabeth smiled brightly, and turned to Percy, "Whiskers is alive." She breathed as if it had only just hit her, she turned and wrapped Percy in a hug, "Whiskers is alive!"

"Umm…" Was the only thing on Percy's mind at the moment, his mind blanking when Annabeth hugged him, then Annabeth seemed to realise what she did and let go of him turning away, to hide the slightest of blushes.

"Let's go, the sooner we finish the sooner we get Whiskers back." She said.

"Are you forgetting Percy's possibly murderous sister?" Grover bleated nervously.

The daughter of Athena frowned, "no, that doesn't sound good."

"Right." Percy said.

"So, let's go meet her." She said, "your dad told you to trust her." She looked nervous now, "maybe she'll be nice to you?"

"Right?" He said, not sounding too sure. "Any ideas of who she could be?"

Annabeth bit her lip, "I don't know, daughters of Poseidon don't show up much in history, the only ones I can think of… Charybdis is a monster, and Kymopoleia…" She looked even more nervous, "maybe they don't show up in history, a lesser known one." She suggested.

"Right, so unknown sister is still unknown." Percy said.

"Well, only one way to find out." Grover said, they all got up and were prepared for anything.

Well, anything but a short, green haired, teen with a sign that read Percy Jackson in Greek. Her eyes were pink, but seemed to bubble, maybe it was the light, but they seemed to look like the ocean during a sunset. On her back was a staff with a flower on one end, two uneven hooks on either end, she had a small scar on her face going from her eye to the bottom of her face. She was wearing baggy sweats and a light jacket that was opened at the front, exposing her grey shirt.

Beside her were two equally strange people, one was wearing so many layers of clothing that it was hard to tell she was a girl, she had red eyes that seemed to burn silently, the rest of her was obscured by her clothing, a red coat with a black jacket over it. She had baggy sweats too, and a strange hat, the only other thing visible was a set of bandages that covered the side of her head and much of her face. She also had a bag on her back that looked like it weighed a few tones, but the girl was carrying it like it was a paperweight. The only other thing of note was that she was big… like really big… she towered over the other girl, looking like she could crush them if they annoyed her.

The final girl had mint green hair and tan skin, her eyes looked like two orangey-yellow suns and even seemed to give off their own light as she glared at Percy. She was wearing a short belly shirt and shorts combo, which would normally make sense since it was summer, but the weather had been… horrible? If that were true, why was it so sunny now?

Before he could think about the strangely inconsistent weather, Annabeth pointed to them, like she thought Percy hadn't noticed them, they weren't hard to miss. They walked over to them and the two groups just stared at each other for a minute, before the green-haired girl with the sign smiled.

"Hi Percy, I'm your sister." She said, the three of them stared blankly at her, the mountain didn't seem to react, but the other girl seemed to glare at them even harder.

Percy finally decided to reply, "yeah… umm, hi?" The glare from the mint haired one intensified but a smile appeared on who he assumed was his sister.

"Wait," Grover said, recognition flashing in his eyes, "you're those campers who showed up a few years ago and caused a fuss with Lady Artemis." He said.

Annabeth looked at him with a look that said, 'do you want to get us killed?' But that soon turned to confusion, if they went to camp, they were demi-gods, but if they were demi-gods and children of Poseidon…

"Yeah, that was us." The green haired one said, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly, "I'm surprised you recognised us."

"I never forget anything when Lady Artemis is involved." Grover said, before blushing.

The girl with the mint hair snorted and said something in a language the demi-gods couldn't understand, though it sounded eastern, Japanese?

"You three are demi-gods?" Annabeth asked, voicing her confusion, the daughter of Athena was now worried about the prophecy she had overheard from Chiron, maybe Percy wasn't the prophecy child and the prophecy that caused her many nightmares would come to fruition sooner than she thought.

"Yeah," Green one said, "why, what did you think we were?"

"We didn't… sorry it's just the oath…" Annabeth trailed off uncomfortably, shifting about on her feet.

"Oh, yeah, we don't count." Yagura said, "for very strange reasons we circumvent that oath."

"What reasons?" Annabeth asked, maybe there was hope the prophecy could still be delayed.

The girl looked slightly annoyed, "doesn't matter," Annabeth had crossed a line somewhere, but she didn't stay annoyed, before Annabeth could apologise and hopefully not get 'destroyed without a thought', she brightened up, "anyway, I just realised you don't know our names, I'm Yagura, this is Hana," she gestured to the huge woman beside her, who nodded, "and Fu," she gestured to the mint haired girl who scowled even more.

"Okay." Percy said, "well I'm Percy, this is Annabeth, daughter of Athena and Grover, he's a satyr."

"Right," Yagura said, taking that in stride, "so, where exactly are you going?"

"Oh, Santa Monica beach, dad sent a messenger to tell us to go there, then we're-"

"Not our problem." The mint haired one, Fu, said.

"Be nice." Yagura said, sending the girl a warning look.

"No, you remember what your dad said, we don't get involved in their business, they don't get involved in ours." Fu said, crossing her arms.

"Sorry about her," Yagura said, looking at the quest members apologetically, "she isn't the best with new people."

"It's okay, what did she mean by dad told you? You've met him?" Percy asked, seeming to only hear that one sentence.

"Yeah, he showed up a few days ago to talk," Percy looked down when he heard this, "he mentioned you and how he was getting worried, so I offered to give you a lift, to the sea, at least." Fu glared at her sister, her eyes looking like miniature suns about to explode.

"Right..." Percy said, still looking down, even Annabeth looked down, these three didn't seem to realise how little most demi-gods have with their parents.

After a short silence, Fu impatiently turned, "let's get going." She said not turning around, just walking away.

"Yeah, we should probably get going, I parked a while a way." Yagura said.

They began walking, the questers following their new companions to a payphone, where they quickly dialled up a cab. They all sat in silence, the questers to nervous to start a conversation and the three strange demi-gods were silent. Hana pulled something from a pocket and started fiddling with it, while the other two were staring at each other, seeming to have an entire argument without speaking. Yagura won by the huffy look on Fu's face, when she turned away from the rest of them, Yagura turned and flashed her brother a grin.

"Sorry, she's not usually like this." She said, an awkward grin on her face.

"It's fine." Percy said, a similar grin on his face, "we're sorry about being such a bother."

"No, no, it was my choice, Fu just doesn't agree," she turned to her sister who still had her back to her, sulking, "I just didn't run it by her first, so she's annoyed."

"Right." Percy said, they fell into another awkward pause.

"We're headed the same direction anyway, so it just seemed like a good idea."

"Where are you headed, then?" Percy asked.

"None of your business." Fu spat.

"Don't be rude." Yagura said, before turning to Percy, "San Francisco."

Annabeth immediately paled, along with Grover, "w-what? Why would you want to go there? Demi-gods can't survive there."

Yagura looked confused, before she seemed to remember something, "oh, that? Don't worry, we'll not be there long hopefully, just a few days preferably, then we're heading back to camp Half blood."

"Really?" Percy asked.

Yagura smiled at her brother. "Yeah, we're looking-" Fu shoved her, and she turned to glare at her, another silent argument happened between the two of them, this time Yagura lost.

After that, there was silence between them the only noises coming from the cars going past until their taxi came and they got in, Fu said something to the driver too quietly for the questers, with the exception of Grover, to hear. Grover gained a confused expression at the location though, but didn't say anything. Fu then smiled and clicked her fingers, a snap that reminded Percy of the events of something that happened not too long ago.

After they had entered the cab, Percy remembered the details of what had happened, what felt like years ago, "you were on the bus." He said.

Yagura looked surprised for a moment before a slight frown appeared on her face, "yeah." She said, her two sisters seemed to remember too, and looked at Percy with slight pity, even Fu, who had been glaring at him up till now looked slightly sad.

"What bus?" Annabeth asked, Grover looked like he was going to be sick at the memory.

"My bus ride home, they were on it, but there were five others with them." Percy said.

"Yeah, those are the rest of us," she looked like she was contemplating something, before she finally decided, "dad told me to go there, he wanted me to know about you."

"Why?"

She smiled slightly, "so I could meet you obviously."

"Wait." Annabeth said, "what do you mean 'the rest of us?'"

"Our brothers and sisters." Hana said, startling them since this was the first time she had spoken around them.

"Wait, there are more of us?" Percy asked.

"Us?" Fu asked, before she realised what he was implying, "no," she snorted, "me and Hana aren't your sisters, neither are the others."

"Wait then-" Percy began.

"They are not my biological siblings Percy." Yagura said, "they're more adopted siblings."

"Oh."

"Then who are their parents?" Annabeth asked.

Fu was about to say something but Yagura cut her off, "Apollo for Fu and Hephaestus for Hana." Yagura said, her 'adopted' sister glared at her but said nothing.

"Cool." Percy said.

They were silent for a while longer, the demi-gods admiring the quickly passing landscape, before it seemed to dawn on them, and Annabeth asked "where did you park?"

"In a lake, it's not far though, the cab will get us there quickly." Yagura answered, disregarding the others looks of confusion.

She then said something in that other language again, Fu replied, gesturing to Hana and nodding.

"When we get there, we're going to have to wait for a bit, just ten or fifteen minutes before going." The other demi-gods looked confused, so Yagura answered their unasked questions, "Hana was… injured a few days ago, Fu's been healing her, just one more session and we're goof to go. After that we're going to make one short stop and then we'll be right around Santa Monica."

"Wait, what's the stop for?" Percy asked.

"We're picking up the others and trying to talk some sense into Utakata." Yagura said.

"Others?" Annabeth asked wearily.

"Yeah, our other siblings. They went on ahead a bit, we agreed to meet at the Great Salt Lake, we'll pick them up and then we'll be on our way."

"What are they like, your siblings?" Percy asked.

"Well, they're… different," She said, "they won't be particularly happy to see you I think," She winced, "except Roshi," she glanced at Annabeth, "one of my brothers, a son of Athena."

"What?" Annabeth asked, her mind racing.

"Yeah, Roshi, you may have seen him when we were at camp, red hair, big bushy beard, well back then it was still growing but now it's pretty much back to normal."

"No, I don't think we ever met, how old is he?" Annabeth asked, happy to meet another of her older siblings.

"That… is a good question." Yagura said, she looked to her siblings, but they just shrugged, "we don't know how he physically is, but he should be nearing his fifties now, or is he past them?"

"Fifty?!" Annabeth exclaimed, she couldn't think of many half-bloods that knew what they were and made it to a considerable age, but then her wording caught her attention, "wait what do you mean how old he is physically?"

"Oh, well he looks much younger, he looks like he's still a teenager, and he technically is, but it's complicated, we're all older than we actually look. Not like the gods who are a few thousand years, but we're all off by a decade or so. Roshi's actually quite a few more."

"But how?" Annabeth asked, her mind reeling.

"Don't know, side effect of us being brought here the way we were, but that isn't important."

"But, how did you-"

"Oh look, we're here." Fu said, and they found themselves at the edge of a lake, the cabbie had driven them right up to it. Ignoring the possibility that the cab wasn't allowed here, Fu smiled, "didn't want to do that walk again, just used some mist to let him get through." She explained when she saw the looks she was getting.

"Wait, what are we riding in?" Percy asked, looking around for a car.

"Oh, see the boat?" Yagura gestured to a yacht in the middle of the lake.

"Wait, we're… sailing?" Percy asked.

"Not really, but you'll understand when the time comes." Yagura said.

The boat was suddenly making its way towards them, they squinted and saw that there was no one at the wheel, the boat just seemed to be making its own way there. They turned to Yagura who was staring intently as the boat came closer.

"Here we go." She said as it came close enough for them to hop aboard, the boat seemed to ignore how shallow the water was and made its way all the way up to the shore, "well, get in." She said, the demi-gods and satyr complied, though were very sceptical of how they were going to get anywhere.

"Why don't you three explore the boat, just stay out of Hana's room. It has her name on it." Yagura said as the two other jinchuuriki made their way downstairs. Percy took her advice and took off to explore the ship, somehow the ship just felt… right, like riptide, or his cabin, it was like he was home, and he wanted to explore a bit.

Annabeth noticed a small rainbow made by the window's moisture and the harsh sun, she smiled and said she would contact camp. At the questioning look from the daughter of Poseidon she pulled out a drachma and threw it at the rainbow, "O goddess accept our offering." She said as it disappeared, "show us camp half blood."

(At camp half-blood)

There was chaos everywhere, fights became a regular thing between cabins, most of them ended with one or both parties ending up in the infirmary. Bandit stayed out of all the fights, he tried to keep Clarisse out of them but that was like collecting water with a sieve, while you were on fire, and Clarisse was punching you repeatedly.

She was happy with all the fighting, it was one of her favourite hobbies. Bandit was enjoying the days where Whiskers wasn't here, it meant he wasn't always fighting the need to tear his throat out. Of course, because of the barrier he was constantly on edge, but at least now he didn't have a face to put the blame on, well he always did, his own.

Now, he was simply lounging on the porch with Chiron, he respected the centaur, he was a true warrior and new the value of strength. He taught the fox how to fight better, where to strike to cause the most damage and he even took him on a hunt once, of course it was with the other campers but that didn't mean much. He heard some of the screaming that had become natural these days, someone had started another fight, the fox looked at the centaur as he left the porch. The young son of Hermes was also there, he had been talking to Chiron about something, but Bandit hadn't cared to listen.

He sat there, comfortably laying in the sun, he heard a startled yelp from the son of Hermes and looked up to see an Iris-Message had come in. It looked like the questers had gotten homesick.

It was strange to see them, they looked dishevelled and needed a shower, the satyr and the daughter of Athena were there, as well as another person.

Bandit ignored most of what they said, quietly dozing for a bit until he looked up at the image once more, feeling like something was missing, "where's Whiskers, and Percy?" He asked, drawing the attention to him, the new person who he had never met, gaped at his appearance, she whispered something to herself, but Bandit wasn't listening.

"Percy is fine, he's just exploring right now, as for Whiskers," she glared at nothing in particular, "Ares." She said, "he took him."

"Why?" Bandit asked, sure Clarisse's father was a bit of a dick, but just taking Whiskers didn't seem like him.

"He saved his life," Annabeth grit out, "said he owed him a debt, offered to write it off if he did a few jobs for him." Annabeth said, she didn't look so happy about it, Bandit decided to try and go back to sleep for now.

"So, he's alive?" Luke asked, worry crossing his features.

Annabeth nodded, "Ares said he'd be paying off his debt now, we don't know where he is, just that he's doing Ares errands."

Luke sighed with relief, but it was at this moment the other girl decided to speak up, "Naruto is that you?" She asked, happiness creeping into her voice.

"Who?" Bandit asked, he opened his eyes and found the girl staring at him still, he would have normally ignored her, but the name sounded familiar.

The girl looked saddened for a minute before she smiled at him, "sorry, but could I ask you something?"

The fox decided to humour her, "sure."

"Okay, did you suddenly appear a few years ago with no memory of anything?"

The fox looked shocked, so did everyone else, how did she know? His expression must have said everything, since the girl smiled even more, but before he could get answers the image began to fade away. A voice said to pay an additional drachma for five more minutes, he looked to Luke, but the son of Hermes was already searching his pockets, on the other side, everyone was searching their pockets as well, Annabeth even called Percy over.

Before the image faded away completely, Percy came to the frame, and Luke decided to say something last-minute, "hope you like the shoes Percy, Annabeth Whiskers will be fine and Grover, no one will turn into a tree this time don't-" The image faded then.

"Sorry," he said to the fox as the rainbow shimmered into nothing. "I'm sure Annabeth will tell us when she's done, she's bound to ask now, you look a lot like Whiskers, maybe she'll find his origin as well."

Bandit scowled, he stalked off to his den, looking for something to calm him down, Sofia could help, she was a good listener. Though that may be because she couldn't speak, or at least not audibly to him, maybe one of the Athena cabin could translate, though since they were currently on opposing sides of the 'war' to Ares, he wouldn't get the chance to talk to them until it all blew over.

He sighed, and just when it looked like he might get some answers.

(With Jinchuuriki team B)

Team B had had a rather nice time on their journey up until now, they hadn't run into too many monsters, the news they got from their siblings was both good and bad, they had another lead on Naruto, but Utakata had to go alone; they had nearly healed Hana, but their sister had picked up some hitchhikers; they had almost made it, but were stopped by several cyclopes.

They looked hungry, and were loitering outside the next stop for food, a dinner by the name of 'Joline's' where they had planned on stopping for a quick snack. There were three of them, each covered in grime, with hands like baseball mitts and nails pretty much the same colour. They each reached ten feet, but one of them was kind of cheating since he had styled his hair into a mow hawk to give him an extra half a foot. One of them stepped forward, he looked like their leader, if only from the fact that he had a wooden club that looked like it used to be a tree, and the others had nothing.

The leader sniffed, "demi-gods." It said as it stared at them, the other two grunted, while their leader tried to look tough, it seemed he was the leader since he was the only one capable of speech.

Yugito snarled, and unsheathed her claws slightly and Roshi readied his spear, B punched his palm, sparks came of it like a blacksmiths anvil, all in all they looked awesome. It was a shame this was ruined when one of the cyclopes just fell over, his body disappearing into yellow powder, then the other two soon followed. How inconsiderate, they go to all the bother of looking awesome and the monsters just go and die before there can be a good action scene.

The jinchuuriki looked at each other in confusion, B shrugged and the lighting in his palms dissipated. When the monster dust settled there were three arrows in the ground, three silver arrows.

"Well, well, well." A voice said, they turned behind them and found four girls dressed in silver parkas, they looked kind of familiar, "look what the cat dragged in." One of them said, before she burst into a fit of giggles.

"Anko, stop it." One of them said to the girl who spoke, who was now giggling uncontrollably.

"But it's funny, because she's a cat." Anko said, gesturing wildly to Yugito, who only sighed, recognising the girls, also because she had heard that pun so many times.

"Anko, we've talked about this." The other girl they recognised as Kurenai said, "you need to stop with the bad jokes."

"Never!"

"Why did I agree to go anywhere with you?" The purple hair Yugao said.

"Because you love me." Anko said. The jinchuuriki were confused though, the last time they had seen them they had all taken different routes through a doorway to another world (long story) and all of them had been de-aged. Unless they went for a second time, it looked like the three, previously adult women, had become teens.

They would have voiced this, but another voice spoke: "Enough, thine meaningless drabble will cease." Spoke the last hunter, the three of them recognised this one, her face had been burned into their minds.

"What are you doing here?" Yugito asked, venom dripping from her words as she glared at one of the oldest hunters.

"That is a good question, last time we saw you, you were banished for killing our brother." Roshi said, his tone the same as his sisters.

The hunter looked sad for a moment, "mine curse was ended abruptly, the specific details of the curse were that the journey would last so long as my quarry hath not set foot on Olympus."

"So, part of him… he's been found?" Roshi asked, being the only on to understand her.

"Tis unknown, the date was one where Olympus was visited by thine camp. I believe though brother art hidden with the other demi-gods."

"Wait, what do you mean part of him?" Yugao asked.

"We found out what happened to him." Roshi said, the hunters looked shocked, "and we have a few leads, from what we know, Naruto managed to create physical flesh and blood clones." The three from the elemental nations looked shocked.

"But that's impossible, the chakra requirements are too high, and he didn't have a bijuu in him to use at the time." Yugao said.

"Not if he splits apart, then he can do that art." B said, the others looked confused, but Roshi explained.

"It was experimental, he shared some of his notes with Ku – the kyuubi, it was meant as a sort of stasis, it stops him from being damaged by figuring out what needs fixed and then creating the necessary clones. Each clone's fixes some of the damage, until it is something that the body can fix itself. Each clone is actually just a really enforced shadow clone for a while, but for a while it uses chakra to speed up the rate of cell growth exponentially, even faster than a jinchuuriki, the damaged cells are healed through this and it grows its own clone. The clones would all theoretically heal the rest of the damage depending on how fast the person can heal, for Naruto it should have only been a matter of hours."

"But that would take too much chakra." Kurenai said, "like Yugao said, he was… he wasn't a jinchuuriki when he was shot, he may have large supplies of chakra, but he couldn't split himself like that."

"You're right, but he managed to calibrate the seals to absorb nature chakra to do it. One of the side effects is the user will enter sage mode, right now, there are nine foxes floating about that are each a part of Naruto." Roshi finished.

"And we have leads on one at the moment and possible locations of two, one of them more or less confirmed now that you've said one has been on Olympus and will probably be at camp."

"Our quarry, is a fox?" Zoe asked slowly.

"Yes." Yugito said.

"Hath he fur of silver?"

"Most likely." B replied.

"Will he be able to converse?"

"Well he doesn't know English, at the moment but he can speak, and the lack of English doesn't seem to be stopping you." Anko said with a grin.

"I bring joyous news, and… les joyous news." Zoe said, an awkward smile on her face.

"What do you…" Kurenai began but seemed to have an epiphany, "oh no."

"Yes."

"Wait do you mean?" Yugao asked and Zoe just nodded, "really?"

"You want to clue us in here?" Yugtio asked.

"Yeah," Anko agreed, "or at least tell me that surprise epiphanies are part of the hunter package, I mean it's not like…" She then had her own epiphany, "wait, no way."

"Huh," Yugito said, "that hunter package is looking pretty tempting if we get surprise epiphanies." She grinned at her brothers, B smiled but Roshi grimaced.

"I think I know what happened." He said.

"Wow, even Roshi got in on this, is there something in the air?"

"You even named him Naruto!" Anko said, finally clueing the other two in.

"I hath had no idea, I believed him a companion Milady gifted me to help on my search."

"Really?"

"When searching for a child barely passed his seventh year, I hath not expected my quest to be found at its beginning in the form of a vulpine."

"Well, at least we know where he is then." Yugito said.

"No, tis still unknown, he fled at the sight of mine new companions, a fear of hunters instilled on him."

"And who's fault is that?" Anko asked.

"I admit the blame for this misdeed lies with me."

"Yeah," Roshi said, "so I take it you've checked camp Half-blood then?"

The hunters glared at the ground, "nay," Zoe finally said, "Lord Zeus commanded that all-" Thunder boomed in the sky, and the huntress stopped, "it appears thine father doth not believe you need this knowledge." She looked up, "but he hath ordered us complete another task, our journey took us to here, but our journey bore no fruit in find… in completing the kings task."

"Wait, what's going on? Why are you dad's pawn?" B asked.

"Watch thine tongue!" Zoe said, the sky gurgled uneasily.

"Chill bro, no need to be a-" Yugito smacked B pre-emptively, she knew that the hunters, no matter how much they were set on helping, would accept B talking to them like that, and she sort of liked her brother in one piece. Then again…

"It doesn't matter, we need to get going, we need to be somewhere soon." Roshi said, "our siblings will be waiting." He turned to the hunters again, "if you find him at camp… find a way to contact us."

"Indeed, we shalt make use of Iris' services and will thusly inform you." Zoe said, she then turned to her sisters in arms, "tis time we returned, we will go to the camp," she looked like she wasn't particularly comfortable with the thought but still began to move out.

After they were gone the jinchuuriki made their way onward, completely forgetting about the dinner and making their way quickly to where their siblings would likely be waiting.

Team A had actually had a pretty calm journey after their run in with the mercenaries. There had been no monster attacks and no regular attacks either.

As they ran, the world around them blurred into the familiar tunnel vision that they were used to, after so often in the elemental nations. Most people wouldn't be able to make out anything at the speeds they were going at, even ninja never kept at this speed for a long time, but they weren't most ninja. Their senses were heightened to the point that they could tell exactly what was going on, from the birds above them, to the ants on the ground. They were also sensing for any sign of chakra, something that would be useless most of the time as, on their old world, everyone had chakra, but here there were only eleven people, and they knew where most of them were.

There was only one thing wrong with their trip now, the atmosphere. They had been in unusually quiet since they Utakata found out about his lead.

Garra wasn't sure how to approach the subject without getting his brother annoyed, he trusted Utakata's instinct, and if he said that he trusted his father, he could trust his father. Now he just needed to figure out how to say that, while also saying to bring him along for the ride. He wasn't worried about Utakata being hurt or anything, he was probably the one who lived on his own on the roads for the longest, Roshi being the only one who beat him. He was worried that he'd get lonely.

Sure, he could enter the link, but it was still better to have someone there for him. They had to stick together, they were a family.

"So, are you going to try and convince me not to?" Utakata asked, breaking the silence that had fallen.

Garra was quiet for a minute, "no." Utakata looked at him once more, "if it's a lead on Naruto I trust your judgment."

"I'm sensing a 'but' here." The six tailed jinchuuriki said, turning away from him again.

"But you don't have to go alone."

"I do… Dad, he explained his reasoning. It would be dangerous if anyone but me were to go. He wants me to do something for him, this is the part that you can't be involved in, trust me, only I can do it."

Garra was silent, "you'll be safe?"

"Dad has that covered."

"You'll be able to go into the link?"

"Of course."

"But you won't be able to tell us what's going on?"

"No. From what I understand, finding Naruto will be the easy part of it. It's what dad wants me to do that will take a long time."

"Okay."

"You're not going to object anymore?"

"No." Garra looked ahead blankly, "I don't trust your father, but I trust you, and I know you'll find Naruto."

"Thank you."

"Don't think you're in the clear yet, you still have to convince the others."

"Yeah." Utakata scowled, "why don't they trust me like you are?"

Garra sighed, "they do trust you, we all trust you. It's your dad."

"We've trusted the rest of your parents, we trusted Poseidon with the boat, we trusted Apollo to teach Fu to heal Hana, we trusted Juno to lead us to the others. Why can't we trust Hades?"

"Tell me, truthfully, did you trust any of the other gods straight away?"

"… No."

"It's not that we all immediately trust our parents, its more that we want to. Our parents have been honest with us, mother lead us to the others, Poseidon gave us a quick way across the country, Apollo has taught Fu. You haven't told us what Hades said to you, we don't know where you're going, what you're doing or why. I know you were told a lot more that what you said to us, and I respect that your dad may want to keep that a secret, but we are worried."

Utakata was silent, before they came to a stop, "we're here."

 **A/N: Yay, so everyone will be back together, for one last time, MWUA-HA-HA, joking, anyway, next chapter everyone will be together and the quest will be going to the beach, then Hades, and the rest of the jinchuuriki will be going to New Rome. We'll get to see Temari and Kankuro and all of our favourite Roman's. See you next time, hope you enjoyed.**


	14. Chapter 14

Utakata stared at the lake in silence, his brother stood beside him as they stood on the bank of the biggest saltwater lake in America. There was no one else as far as the eye could see, and the boat wasn't here yet, their siblings were running late, no doubt because of their hitchhikers.

They sat in silence, the son of Hades contemplating his brother's words, while Garra was busy keeping an eye out for monsters or their siblings. It was then that the B team showed up, Garra nudged his brother and pointed to their rapidly approaching siblings, a soft smile on his face.

"Hey, yo, we got news on Naruto." B said when they were within hearing range.

"Really?" Garra asked.

"Yes." Roshi said, "not long ago we ran into some hunters, Naruto's… sisters, they have been looking for him," he grimaced, "also, the one who hurt him is free, she's finding him with them."

Yugito spoke up, "and apparently, Naruto came to her during her banishment, but she didn't realise. He left when she was freed, on the same day the campers at camp Half-blood went to Olympus. So, there is definitely part of him at that camp."

"That's great," Garra said, "so at least two down, when Utakata finds the other."

The three jinchuuriki frowned and looked at their brother, before B spoke, "bro don't go, your dad, he's so-so." He said.

Utakata looked angry at that, and he was about to yell at the three of them, when the boat appeared, an angry Yagura on the deck looking at them.

(With the boat, about twenty minutes before)

Yagura looked ecstatic, she found Naruto, or part of him, though she didn't get to talk long as that was Annabeth's last drachmae, it was confirmation that he was at camp. As she silently cheered to herself the questers had many questions, well except Percy, he was just curious to know what that was.

"What was that?" He asked the resident daughter of Athena.

"Iris message." She said, not even looking at him.

"Iris?"

"Goddess of rainbows, she does messages for the gods, demi-gods too if we pay her."

It was then that Hana and Fu came out, Hana wasn't wearing bandages anymore and now wore a facemask, covering her whole face but her eyes. Fu looked pleased, her grin practically glowing, or maybe it was the sun reflecting off her teeth, either way she was happy.

"Hana's all better now." She said to her sister, who turned and hugged her happily.

"Great!" The daughter of Poseidon chirped, before running up to her much bigger sister and wrapping her in a hug, "and to make it even better, I found another lead on Naruto!"

The two-looked surprised, before they looked happy, "where?" They asked in unison.

"Camp Half-blood!"

"Great, so we wasted all this time going-" The boat rocked rather violently, and Fu got the message, "at least we know where he is now."

"Yeah, now let's go tell the others!" Yagura said, she turned to Grover and Annabeth, "follow these two down below deck, we'll be leaving soon. Percy," she turned to her brother and smiled, "you're with me, I'm going to show you what this thing does."

"Wait-" Annabeth said but the two children of Poseidon were away, she turned to Hana, "who's Naruto?"

"You should know, he's been at your camp for quite a while." The daughter of the forger said.

"There's no one at camp named Naruto, who is he and what has he got to do with the fox's?"

Hana looked to where her sister had gone, a worrying glance was sent to Fu who seemed to understand, the green haired daughter of Apollo looked apologetically to the daughter of Athena, not seeming to be so hostile anymore, but maybe it was just the good news about this Naruto person that was making her so happy.

"Come down below deck, we'll explain it there." She said, "it's not safe here."

"What? Why? And where's Percy going?" Annabeth asked.

"He'll be fine." Hana said, "but you won't if you stay on deck, trust me, being outside while this happens is one of the most painful things that will ever happen to you." She rubbed the side of her head, and Annabeth had the distinct impression she was talking from experience.

"Fine, but you had better tell me."

They all went into the bowels of the ship, Grover went reluctantly, but once he was there he looked a bit surprised before he smiled lightly.

"Okay, now strap in." Fu said, gesturing to a few seats which kind of looked like the kind found on rollercoasters, a huge metal bar at the top of each seat. The satyr and demi-goddess sat down, looking confused, the two then sat in beside them, Fu on Annabeth's side and Hana on Grover's. They then pulled down the bars, which locked in place.

"Sorry they're not comfy, but the alternative is worse." Fu said.

"Why are we in them?" Annabeth asked.

"So, you don't hit each and every one of these walls when we get going." Fu said.

"Wait, what?" Annabeth asked, wide eyed, her mind quickly coming up with an explanation, "this thing flies?"

"What? No." The daughter of Apollo said, strapping herself in now, the daughter of Athena sighed, she was sure Zeus would smite them if Percy was flying, even if Ares claimed the gods wouldn't.

"So, how are we going to Santa Monica?"

"Well, we're not going there yet, too far for one jump." Hana said, "we're going to the great Salt Lake."

"Jump?" Annabeth and Grover said at the same time, terror creeping into their voices.

"Good day passengers, this is your captain Yagura speaking." Yagura said, her voice coming in over a speaker, "with me is my co-captain Perseus-"

"Percy." Percy's voice interrupted.

"Come on, your ruining the thing I've got going."

"Sorry."

"It's fine, now let's, oh, it's still on."

Hana and Fu sniggered.

"I hope you enjoy our trip today, we will be leaving in approximately thirty seconds."

"Once again I'd like to thank you for choosing Poseidon boating."

"Okay, now since this is your first time, you can push the button."

"Sis, it's still on."

"Damnit, right well anyway, start the countdown."

"TEN!"

Annabeth spoke, "wait, we can't fly, Zeus will blast us!"

"NINE!"

"I told you we won't fly." Fu said.

"EIGHT!"

"Then how will we get there?"

"SEVEN!"

"It's a surprise, just wait, you won't die, unless you annoy Poseidon."

"SIX!"

The daughter of Athena paled.

"FIVE!"

She tried moving the bar holding her down, but it wouldn't budge.

"FOUR!"

Fu grabbed her hand, "trust me, you don't want to do that."

"THREE!"

"I don't know you, why would I trust you?" Annabeth looked terrified.

"TWO!"

Fu looked a bit annoyed, "fine, don't but you'll be fine, the boat will-"

"ONE!"

And then the entire boat seemed to plummet straight down, Annabeth's eyes widened before she closed them and started praying very quickly in ancient Greek far too quickly for the others to understand. Grover bleated very loudly, his eyes becoming slits, he kicked so hard his shoes came flying off, then they started flying about, their little wings not helping one bit as they hit the ceiling and got stuck, it looked like gravity had been reversed. Fu grinned like a loon and put her hands up, cheering as loudly as she could, while Hana closed her eyes and tried to calm her rapidly beating heart.

Finally, the boat seemed to peak, for a few seconds everything was calm, the shoes were free and tried to fly back to Grover, but then gravity decided to make up for missed time. Everything was pulled down, the shoes too, both were flapping valiantly, but couldn't overcome the speed of the boat, Grover decided the wall in front of him wasn't yellow enough and tried to add to it with the contents of his stomach, his choice of paint didn't make it and the sneakers got an interesting paint job.

Then everything stopped, the boat went back to bobbing on the water, instead of being violently shoved into it and torn out just as violently. The bars raised, and Annabeth stood, shakily, she turned and saw Grover, cringing and silently thanking whichever god had listened. Fu bounced off her seat with a grin and smiled at Annabeth, while Hana put a hand on Grover's shoulder, who was shaking like a leaf and looking like he was going to be sick.

"At least you got seats for your first ride." She said.

Suddenly the door slammed open and Percy rushed in, "Annabeth, Grover." Upon seeing the two of them looking so shaken up he scrunched up his eyebrows, "what happened to you?"

"We were used like a yo-yo!" Grover screamed, quivering as his eyes darted about nervously.

"What, but it was such a calm trip." Percy said, looking confused.

"Easy for you to say." Fu said, "where's Yagura?"

"Oh, she's she was 'looking menacing to inspire fear into my idiot of a brother so that he doesn't do something stupid.'" He looked thoughtful, "well, I'm not doing anything stupid right now, so she's clearly not talking about me."

"Maybe she is, you're the biggest idiot, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said, finally regaining her balance and making her way out of the ship. Fu's lip curled into a small smile.

"Hey!" Percy complained.

"Right," Fu said, stopping them from getting into an argument, "time for you to meet the rest of the family."

With that, they all made their way onto the deck and followed the sounds of arguing, they eventually came across the sight of five individual in the midst of an argument.

Yagura was yelling at a dark-haired man, who was wearing a dark blue shirt, for a minute Percy paused, faint recollection on his face, the man he knew was familiar because he was with the others on the bus, but there was a niggling feeling in the back of his mind that he wasn't just remembering him from there. His hair looked emo, or goth, and was pretty long, it looked like it was partially covering one eye.

When he turned to the group, Percy found himself looking into a pair of dark brown eyes, they looked so familiar, but where had he seen them. He was knocked out of his thoughts by a voice.

"So, these are our hitchhikers." A monotone voice drawled, the owner was one of Yagura's other family, he had red hair, and teal eyes, that looked calm, but had a hint of what was in Dionysus's eyes, madness glimmered beneath the surface, like a snake about to strike. He had a creepy red tattoo on his forehead that sent the demi-gods dyslexia into hyperdrive, but they seemed to figure it was the groups first language, likely Japanese. The boy had a bag on his back that looked like it was made of a rough material, it was beige but had designs all around it, the funny thing was, it seemed to move, it gave the questers a warning feeling.

"Yes." Hana said, her voice coming out louder, all eyes turned to her and the group smiled.

"Looks like your better." A redheaded young man with a beard said, he must be Annabeth's brother, he didn't look much like her, he didn't have the honey blonde hair most children of Athena had, nor did he have their grey eyes. But he just seemed to have this look, Percy mused, unlike Annabeth who gave a look like she was figuring out your every weak point, this man gave one very quick glance and looked like he already knew your every weakness. His black eyes seemed to know everything, and he gave off an air of wisdom only gained with age, but he still looked like a kid.

"Much better, thanks to Fu." Hana said, "now, what's going on here?"

Yagura spoke first, "Utakata wants to go off alone still."

"And?" Hana asked.

"Don't tell me you agree with him? He can't he should at least tell me where he's going."

"I agree, he can't go off on his own like that." A new voice said, both Percy and Grover couldn't stop their blushes, the only thing stopping Grover from blushing last time they came in contact, was the fear running through his system. Now though, both boys couldn't help but think that she was one of the most beautiful women either had ever met. Annabeth scowled when she saw the blushes, whacking both on the head. But even she realised she was very pretty, she had long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and a perfectly framed face, there were no scars, moles or acne on her smooth tanned skin and her eyes were like black holes, making all of them want to get closer. Her lips were ruby red, and the even as she frowned at her sister she looked beautiful.

Percy looked at Annabeth in confusion, wondering why she hit him, before he just shrugged and looked back to the conversation.

It seemed like it was someone else's turn to talk as now a huge African-American man was talking, though talking wasn't the right word, "-so don't mean my bro can go-" he was huge, not as big as Hana, but he could probably reach her shoulder, and for what looked like someone still in his teens, that was impressive. His muscles looked like they could match the daughter of Hephaestus too, each bicep looked like it was bigger than both demi-gods heads. He was wearing a pair of shades that looked completely black, not letting them see his eyes. He had a few tattoos, the most visible of which being what looked like horns under his left eye. He also had something that looked similar to the redheads creepy red tattoo on his shoulder. He was also rapping, really badly.

"Don't talk to me about breaking our rules, we have always lived alone, but we have never let anyone get this close to us!" The black-haired kid said.

And just like that, all the attention was back on the questers, they squirmed slightly under the looks, seven pairs of eyes and a pair of dark glasses. They were all silently analysing them, Percy and Annabeth looked around wearily, catching each of their eyes (and glasses). Grover looked down at his feet, refusing to look at any of them. Annabeth showed no emotion and her eyes caught on the red bearded one. For a minute they stared into each-other's eyes no emotion on either face, before the red head nodded and Annabeth reciprocated, silent respect for the other. Percy looked to his sister for guidance, she just shrugged at his questioning gaze, real helpful, he managed to look each of them in the eye, only succumbing to a blush at the blonde's gaze, causing her to smirk like the cat that caught the canary.

Finally, it was Roshi to speak, in their home tongue.

He said something, nodding to Annabeth and the others, with the exception of Yagura and Hana, looked unsure. He then said something more and they sighed, the one with the dark hair looked away, like he was ashamed of something.

Finally, Roshi said something in English, "it is nice to meet you, it's good to meet more family." Then he smiled at Annabeth, "little sister."

Annabeth reciprocated the smile and Grover sighed.

"Well then, time for introductions." Yagura said, "these are Grover… uh…"

"Underwood." Grover said.

"Underwood! Grover Underwood, the satyr." She said, pointing to the currently shoeless goat boy, "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena; and Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"Nice to meet you." Annabeth said.

"Yeah, how's it going?" Percy said.

"Right, so, these are my siblings, Garra," redhead with the forehead tattoo, "Yugito," really pretty blonde, "Roshi," red-beard, "Utakata," familiar emo, "and B," big rapping man.

They nodded at each of their names and Yugito winked to the two boys when she saw them staring, they blushed again.

"Right, well now that is all out of the way, Utakata, you're staying with us."

And they were back to arguing.

Hana sighed and put her heads in her hands, "I almost want to be deaf again." She sighed once more, "alright enough, we'll put this to a vote." They all settled down, "right, now who votes for Utakata to stay?" Four hands were raised, Yagura, Fu, Yugito and B. "Well this is pointless, but in the sake of democracy, against?" The other four raised their hands and Hana put her head in her hands, they all re-ignited the argument, except Roshi.

"Quiet down, quiet down!" He said, when the complied he spoke again, "alright, now, as it is, we are completely divided, four on four. So, what if we got an outsider opinion?" He turned to Annabeth, "since Annabeth is my sister, a daughter of Athena, she can give us the wisest, most rational choice, free of personal attachment." There were a few grumbles from the others, but they all reluctantly agrees, while the girl in question blushed slightly, before smiling slightly and straightening up.

"Well, umm, what is the problem?" She asked, trying not to blush again under all the pressure.

"To summarise," Roshi said, "Utakata has been given the location of something we seek from his father, we are already following a lead, that may or may not prosper, but we now know where some parts of it are. His father has said that he is the only one allowed to go find this, and he must go alone, he also said that we are not to be told anything and we will be completely kept in the dark. He has also asked that, in exchange for this information, he must do something for him, which again, he cannot disclose. Now, his father has offered protection while doing this task, but we will be unable to contact him directly for the amount of time he will take to do the task."

"All right." Annabeth said, her eyes seemed to puzzle for a few seconds before a conclusion was reached, "well, from what you've told me, it seems that the most logical solution would be to let him go." Roshi frowned and half of them looked ready to argue, but Annabeth spoke again, "considering his father will offer protection, that is one main problem covered, if you find what you need then it seems like a win-win. The lack of contact could be solved, you said no direct contact, so I assume you have some method of indirect contact, and if it is his godly parent, very likely since they offer protection, it is unlikely that he will be hurt by them, unless indirectly."

Roshi frowned before sighing, "that is a logical and well formulated argument," he looked at Utakata, then Annabeth, "I retract my vote."

Yagura looked annoyed, but conceded, though she glared at both children of Athena, the others on her side looked less annoyed but only looked at their brother with worrying looks. Utakata smiled at his brother, then surprisingly, the daughter of Athena, while those on his side simply smiled, even if they did send worried looks to their brother as well, just because they agree doesn't mean they didn't worry.

Before anymore words could be said, a car horn made them all jump, they all turned and found a completely black rolls Royce, all the windows were tinted, even the windshield. The licence plate read 'UND3R W0RLD' and there was a Greek helmet on the bonnet as an ornament.

The car door opened, and the questers reached for their weapons when an old lady came out, a familiar old lady.

"Mrs Dodds." Percy said, glaring at the fury, she looked different than she had before, her leather jacket was gone, replaced with a black blouse, black business suit and matching skirt. She snarled at the questers, but turned to Utakata.

"Your father sent me." She glanced back to Percy, "and though I would like to, he gave me strict orders to be professional."

"Y-your father?" Percy questioned, looking shocked at the black-haired boy.

"Yes, my father, Hades." He then turned to his siblings, "goodbye, I'll try and tell you if… when I find him." Then he approached the car, the fury opened the door to the backseat and he entered. Alecto sent one last glare to the son of Poseidon and then entered the front seat, the engine revved and before they knew it he was gone.

"He's a son of Hades?" Annabeth asked, clearly scared from the encounter.

"Yeah," Yagura muttered.

The three questers shared a look, clearly terrified at what this might mean for their quest, what if the task Hades had was killing them, would he do it?

"Well, he'd better find him now." Yugito muttered.

"Yeah." Fu said.

Yagura sighed, "alright, now time to get on the ship."

"Yo, I think I'll stay ashore, don't want no stomach sore." B said, inching away from the boat like it were filled with dynamite.

"Nope." Yagura said, the water in the lake flew out like a whip and wrapped around her brother, hoisting him up, before depositing him on deck, "everyone is spending the next few hours on board."

"Wait, are we not going to Santa Monica?" Percy asked, at their looks he looked uncomfortable, "I mean, I don't want to rush you or anything, it's just we only have a few more days to do the quest."

"Sorry, bro, the boat can only make two jumps a day, we'll have to wait a few hours before going again, but don't worry, the next stop is Santa Monica." Yagura explained.

"Oh," Percy said, "right… so what are we going to do until then?"

They were all quiet, until Fu grinned and looked at Hana, "say, sis, did you install all the stuff we got?"

Hana mirrored her grin beneath the mask, "yeah."

"Great. Say, have any of you watched Monty Python?"

(Several hilarious hours later)

The whole group were happy, Hana and Yagura had chosen well when it came to TV's, they got a 100-inch TV, they weren't even sure they were on the market, but thanks to Hephaestus they now had the best entertainment room possible. The room was already there beforehand, but there was no TV, no sound system, no radio, there were a few books and a selection of board games, but the rest of the room more than made up for it.

There five leather sofa's each comfortably fitting three people, and several bean bags just in case, a coffee table was in the middle of the room and on the walls, were the aforementioned bookshelves. Under the coffee table the board games were tucked into a box, so they didn't go flying when the ship made a jump. There was even a mini-fridge stocked full of all sorts with a cupboard next to it that had some snacks.

The room hadn't been used much, only Hana had really been here, and that was after they bought their new tech. Truth was, the nine of them didn't really explore until Yagura and Hana did, Fu joined in after the first few days where she collapsed after healing her sister. The three of them had found this room and the other four were amazed at it. They couldn't really change anything, due to it all being nailed down, but Hana had put up the huge TV over the coffee table, reinforcing it several times so it didn't break when they jumped.

The group had a great night, watching Monty Python, they watched 'the holy grail' which the jinchuuriki didn't always understand due to the different cultures, but Annabeth explained anything they really needed to know quick enough that they enjoyed the movie. They then watched 'the meaning of life' again, with Annabeth's commentary, but there was a lot less to be explained. Before they watched 'life of Brian' Annabeth gave a quick rundown of Christianity, they knew a good bit about the Roman's, so they didn't need anything else and they all thought that movie was the funniest.

Now though, they had run out of movies, and though they had a box set their lungs and chests all wanted a break from the constant laughter. So now they were all just talking, Annabeth told a few stories from camp, with Grover's help and Percy decided to open up a bit more to them, so he told them a few stories of from when he was a kid, most of which gained a few chuckles, causing groans from the already painful ribs.

"How did you get the lever mixed up?" Fu asked through painful laughs.

Percy blushed, "there were two levers, I just pulled one."

A few more chuckles then groan.

"That's great," B said, "you're a good kid, mate."

"So, what about you guys, any stories?" Percy asked.

"Umm," they all looked around at each other, "not really." Yugito said.

"Come on, we don't know anything about you." Percy complained, "just one story."

They shared an uncomfortable look, they didn't have many happy stories, and they wanted to keep their past behind them.

"No, we don't have good stories." Yagura said.

Feeling the tension growing Annabeth decided to change the subject, "who's Naruto?" Immediately the happy mood disappeared, the seven of them looked sad, like they had mentioned a relative who had… oh. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"No, it's okay." Hana said, "I said I'd explain." She sighed deeply and put a hand to her face, "Naruto is our brother, as I'm sure you've gathered."

The daughter of Athena nodded while Percy and Grover looked confused, "I guessed," Annabeth said, "but why do you act like you're all related, I thought you were all from different families."

"We are, all of us have different godly parents, and different mortal ones too." Roshi said.

"Then why?"

"Because we all have similar circumstances, they brought us together and we had no one else." Yagura said.

"But what about your mortal parent?" Percy asked.

Everyone except Fu and Yugito scowled, Yugito answered though, "they aren't around, some of them…" she looked at her siblings, "by choice."

"What? Why?" Percy asked but he got a glare in response.

"That's none of your business." Fu spat.

"Calm down," Yagura said, "anyway, we are a family because there is… was no one else to help us."

"Naruto, he had it the worst," Yugito said.

They all looked even more sombre.

"Naruto had been alone, we all had each other from the start but he spent his first few years alone, and worse…"

"That doesn't matter," Roshi said stiffly, "Naruto eventually became our brother, and we loved-love him."

"What happened to him?" Percy asked.

Yagura sighed deeply, "when we got here, there was a problem with our transport-"

"Yeah, you said it made you young." Percy said, Yagura was then glared at by a few of them, but she continued.

"But that wasn't all, you see, we aren't from around here, we come from a… different country," Annabeth looked like she wanted to know more but didn't ask at the look from Roshi, "when we came, there was some sort of turbulence, and we somehow ended up scattered around the country. We were all separated, but Lady Artemis was sent to find us, she found four of us, the rest… we found each other and went searching." She sounded uncomfortable.

Yugito spoke up, "me, Roshi, B and Fu went to camp Half-blood with Lady Artemis, she had sent her hunters out in groups. Naruto had another few… sisters." She scowled, "they're not demi-gods, but they helped raise him from when he was a child," Annabeth was going to say something but stopped when she saw the glare Yugito was sending the floor. "Artemis had stationed some of her hunters at camp, just in case any of us made it on our own. It turns out, Naruto landed just outside the boundaries of your camp. One of the hunters of Artemis, her lieutenant, Zoe, saw Naruto, she claimed to have had dreams of someone with Naruto's mask, attacking Lady Artemis, so she attacked." Yugito looked so sad.

"Naruto ran, but she gave chase, eventually she caught him, sent an arrow through his head." Fu scowled.

Annabeth looked down, and Percy and Grover were shocked.

"I'm… I'm sorry." Annabeth said.

"He's not dead." Fu said. The questers looked confused, so she elaborated, "he had developed a way to heal himself if he was ever injured too badly. He basically cloned himself, and poured a little bit of himself into each clone, the clones are already functioning, and they heal the damage done to him. Then they should, in theory come together to re-create Naruto."

"In theory?" Annabeth questioned, "wait, how did he do it?"

"It's… complicated." Roshi said, "and don't think you can use it, Lord Hades said he wouldn't allow it to happen again."

"So, you're looking for him, then." Percy asked.

"Yeah, there was a prophecy, it said how the nine pieces will be with 'heroes to come' so we're searching for those heroes." Fu said.

"And now we've found him, or at least a few parts, Utakata was given a lead by lord Hades, that's who he's searching for. Zoe," Yugito spat the name like she was swearing, "said she found part, but lost him, and we found out that one part is at camp."

"But there isn't anyone going by the name Naruto at camp," Annabeth said, then she turned to Yagura and her eyes widened, "you… Bandit, but that means… Whiskers is…" She started mumbling to herself before she glared at them, "no, you can't have Whiskers!" She yelled. They all looked startled at this, but Annabeth stood up and glared at them, "I won't lose Whiskers again."

Then she turned and left, making her way up to the deck. Everyone looked puzzled for a minute.

"Who's Whiskers?" A baffled Roshi asked.

"Her… friend? Pet?" Percy asked Grover.

"Friend." The satyr said, "neither like thinking of him as a pet."

"He wouldn't happen to be a fox?" Roshi asked, stroking his beard.

"Yeah," Percy said, sounding surprised, "how'd you guess?"

"Intuition," he said, a grin on his face, before it fell to a frown, "I assume she is close to him."

"Very, they were inseparable, until," the son of Poseidon winced, "it's my fault, on the arch, Whiskers saved my life but sacrificed his own, or so we thought. Ares saved him and has him doing stuff for him in Denver, said he'd get us a lift on the way back."

The seven other demi-gods had a quick conversation in Japanese again, seeming to agree on something, Roshi sighed before getting up and following his sister out. He found her at the top of the ship, sitting with her arms around her knees, she was looking at the sun setting, casting the lake in a burning orange.

"You're not getting him," she said, not even looking at him, "I've lost him once, I won't lose him again."

Roshi sighed, "you're being cruel, this is who he is, you may know him as Whiskers, but he's Naruto."

"I don't care who he was, he is now Whiskers."

"Even if it kills him?"

Annabeth whirled around so fast it looked like a hurricane of blonde, "what?!" She was staring at him with wide eyes, before they narrowed.

"Clones aren't meant to last forever, we don't know how long these ones will last, they are untested, for all we know he could give out at any point." This wasn't a lie, but the chances where they had several more years before that happened, to be honest, by the looks of it, he was actually living the life of a fox, but the clones were untested, it might give up early.

Annabeth looked away, "I… I can't lose him, not now, not after…" Her eyes widened, "Parrot!"

"What?"

"Another fox, he was a friend of Thalia's," Roshi looked happy, but little surprised, "she was a daughter of Zeus, but they're both… gone now."

Roshi froze, he just stared at his sister, "no, that can't be true."

"I'm sorry, but they-"

"No, you don't understand, all the foxes should still have a link between them, not strong enough to feel each other's pain or know where they are, but they will all die if one dies." Roshi said. Annabeth's eyes widened, "that's another reason for bringing him back, if any of them die, they all will."

"I-I…" she turned away, "he-he's not actually dead, Zeus took pity on his daughter, turned her into a tree so that Hades wouldn't get the chance to torture her."

"Then he's alive, it's just a matter of getting him out of the tree," he sighed, "you sound like you were close."

"Yeah." They sat in silence.

"I don't mean to force you, but could you tell B about her." The girl looked confused, "he's a son of Zeus," she looked shocked, "he… he's a bit jealous right now, of Yagura. He doesn't show it well, but I've known him a long time, though he has us, seeing us get to know our siblings… it hurts. It's the same with the others, but at least when we get to camp we'll have siblings, he and Utakata…"

"I… I understand." She stared as the sun finally set, the lake now completely black. "Whiskers, when… if you take him… will he remember me?"

Silence Roshi, was thinking, quickly trying to think, "I… I don't know."

They sat in silence once more, neither wanting to speak, finally Annabeth shivered, "I'm going back in." She said, she hopped down and walked past her brother, stopping just after she passed him, she stared at his back for a few seconds before descending back down.

Roshi sighed, looking up to the sky like it would hold the answers.

When Annabeth entered the room, the others turned to her, she ignored the stares and sat next to Percy. No one said anything for a short time until Roshi came back in, taking his seat beside Yugito, who had taken two seats.

No one spoke for a long time, before Percy broke the silence, "what did Luke say to you?" He asked.

"Fights have broken out in camp, people are picking sides," Annabeth said, "word has got out of…" She paused and looked at the others, "what are quest is."

"Oh," Percy said, he then scrunched up his face in thought, "what did he mean, at the end? He said no one would turn into a tree this time."

Roshi glanced at Annabeth and she nodded, Grover looked down, the others just looked confused.

"I should have told you the truth from the beginning," Grover finally said, his voice trembling slightly along with the rest of his body, "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along."

Annabeth spoke up to give the other group some context, "Grover was our protector, he was supposed to deliver Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Luke and me to camp Half-blood," the goat bleated quietly, while B just froze in place, "he brought us all to camp."

"But I failed." He said, "I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," he sniffled, "only Thalia, I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We all knew Hades was after her, see, but I just couldn't leave Luke, Whiskers, Parrot and Annabeth by themselves. I thought… I thought I could lead them all to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught us, I froze up, got scared on the way back and took some wrong turns. If I was just a bit quicker…"

"Stop it," Annabeth said, "no one blames you. Thalia… Thalia made her choice."

"Who is Parrot," Fu asked, before her, and her siblings eyes glazed over and they all turned to Roshi with a surprised look on their faces.

The other questers were trying to cheer Grover up, until he dozed off, they then talked a bit about Annabeth's past before camp, her dad and her time with Thalia and Luke on the run; while Roshi informed the jinchuuriki of the fox in the tree, and Whiskers.

At the end, B looked sad, "I had another sister." He muttered to himself.

They all eventually dozed off, into sad dreams of the past, except for Percy, his dream was far worse. It started off as a typical nightmare, Percy was in a straight-jacket, being mocked for not doing an exam, but it started getting weird when he turned around. When he looked left, there was a girl, with short black punk style hair, freckles across her nose and dark eyeliner surrounding her green eyes, he somehow knew who she was, Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

Then he looked to his right and found another girl, she looked his age, or a bit older, and had a dark skin tone, she had a splash of freckles going across the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were the same green as Thalia's, but a name didn't come to him, he didn't know this person, but it was like he knew her, he was sure she was real.

"Well, Seaweed Brain," Thalia said, glaring at him as she struggled in her own jacket.

"Who's it going to be?" Mystery girl asked, a lot calmer, her jacket loosened a bit, but she didn't seem to notice.

"It has to be one of us." Thalia said.

"One of us has to get out." Mystery girl said, not noticing how close she was to freedom.

Percy looked like he was watching a tennis match looking between the two of them. He then nodded to himself and his eyes hardened, the dream suddenly melted away, he appeared at the edge of a pit in a dark cavern.

"For once the war god did something useful." An evil voice spoke.

"Yes Lord." A familiar voice said from beside Percy, but there was no one there, "the rest of the plan should play out like it was supposed to, and they are all as clueless as ever. Your plan is succeeding, truly you are well named, Crooked One."

"Indeed, but what of these new players?"

"I do not know Lord, they came from nowhere, the only information I have is that they came to camp a few years ago and were involved in some trouble with the moon goddess. That and Poseidon seems to favour them."

"Hmm," the evil voice pondered, "for now, so long as they do not interfere, they will be of no interest."

"Yes, my Lord."

"Wait," the voice said, "he is here."

"You summoned him my Lord?"

"No," the voice sounded angry, "blast his father, he is too unpredictable. He has come here of his own accord."

"Impossible!"

"For you, maybe, but he is not so weak it seems." The voice snarled, "so, you wish to know of your quest, well I will oblige."

Now the dream was set in a throne room, bronze floors and marble walls as black as night, a throne of skulls in front of him. On the dais in front of the throne, Sally Jackson was frozen in place shimmering in a golden haze, immobile. Percy tried to move but looked to find his body withering to bone, soon skeletons in Greek armour surrounded him, crowning him in laurels smoking with poison.

"Hail the concurring hero." The voice chuckled.

(With Whiskers)

The fox had been searching the theme park, day had slowly turned to night and he was no closer to finding his prize than he was at the start. He had searched most of the rides, scaling the roller coasters, going into the haunted house, which was ironically not as scary as the rest of the park, and even searching the gift shop in case they did a sale on godly shields.

Now though, it looked like he had found his prize, in the 'thrill ride 'o love', something that's name made him want to throw up for some reason, he could see it. In the middle of the empty water basin, there was a small run-down boat that had a large Greek style shield in it. This stank of a trap.

Cherubs surrounded the basin like little bodyguards, bows at the ready, the fox circled the basin a few times, before deciding to just go for it. He slid down the side and found something strange, on the sides going around the entire basin were mirrors, everywhere he looked there was another silver fox, which was giving him an uncomfortable feeling of Déjà vu.

For some reason, the fox approached on of the mirrors, looking at himself oddly. He looked at the reflective surface and squinted, the mirror did the same, he wagged his tail, so did the mirror. He went to turn, the mirror didn't.

"What the hell?" He asked, starting to get nervous, he couldn't smell another fox, so he couldn't be real, he wasn't like Bandit, it must be a trick mirror or something.

But when his reflection spoke, he was freaking out, "hmm, no, not yet, but soon." The mirror sounded different to him, or Bandit, or Parrot, it sounded harsher, and the voice was deeper, but they sounded similar.

"What do you mean? Who are you? I-" But the mirror was normal again, the fox stared at himself, confusion marring his face, "what the hell was that?" But the mirror didn't answer this time, he stared at it for a few minutes before turning back to the shield. "That poison must have had a long lasting hallucinogenic effect."

He then padded over to the shield, beside it was a pink scarf, the fox took one sniff and almost gagged at the smell of perfume. It smelled nice, sweet but with a hint of something else, but the scent was just too powerful for the fox's sensitive nose. He backed away from it, having an idea of who's it was, and why Ares was here.

The fox turned back to the shield, inspecting it, his sharp eyes caught something just over the shield, a small spiderweb? No, a trip wire. He tried to follow it, a difficult task because of how fine the cable was, and came to the mirror he had been reflecting on, he took a wary glance towards it and tried to find something, a latch or door, or something. There was nothing, the wire went underneath the mirror and there was no way of finding out what was beneath it without tripping it.

So, the fox did the smart thing, he tripped it, grabbing the shield, and the scarf just in case Aphrodite wanted it back and came to him, an irate love goddess was not something he wanted to deal with.

Immediately the cherub statues surrounding the rim turned and aimed their bows, but not at the fox, at each other. Before he could react, the arrows were flying, trailing golden threads behind them, the threads wrapped around themselves several times until a net, just too tight for the fox to fit through was covering the whole basin.

A loudspeaker, from one of the statues then spoke, "live to Olympus: 60… 59… 58…"

The fox growled, the net would be too small for him to bring the shield through, he looked around for an escape when a noise from the mirrors startled him. First the mirrors rose, and then, hundreds of silvery robots poured out, spiders. He was glad Annabeth wasn't here right now.

"51…50…" Whiskers scowled at the nearest cherub, the countdown was annoying him now.

There was no escape in sight, the fox had to jump away from a spider that got to close, the legs clicking with every movement. As he moved he caught sight of a something, an escape!

The ride was still open! He saw the path the boat was meant to take through the dark tunnel, there had to be an exit there.

He quickly dashed for it, the opening looking safer by the minute, he absent-mind-idly realised the countdown was already at thirty somehow. The darkness of the tunnel was made creepier by various pictures depicting sickeningly sweet acts of love, hearts were everywhere and there were even a few cherubs staring at him with camera lenses.

As he was about to make it to the end, he came to a huge gate blocking his path, he just decided to jump it, he fell short a bit but gripped onto the side of the gate. He didn't care that the countdown was at five as he finally made his way to the top of the gate, looking down he just decided to simply walk down, the spiders hadn't followed him, so he was in the clear. "2…1…" The cherub said, and all the cameras spun to look at him.

The fox looked at them before saying, "very funny, now go back to what you were doing, you missed the action." The decorative cameras turned away and the fox sighed, padding away from the ride, not knowing how much him being caught on camera was affecting Olympus.

Ares was waiting for him at the entrance like he promised, but he wasn't looking too good, he had a swollen lip, a black eye and several fresh cuts to his face. He was also leaning on his bike like it were a cane, it looked like someone beat him half to death.

"What happened to you?" The fox asked.

The god scowled, "none of your business, now, shield" he walked forward with a visible limp, the fox raised it and threw it to the god, who caught it. The shield spun mid-air and when the god caught it, it was a bullet proof vest, he threw it to his saddle bag and smiled slightly.

"Right, now what?"

The god scowled, "I've been convinced," he said, spitting the word like it were poison, "to let you go after this next task, this one is the one for your friend's ride."

Up above, in the sky, the moon was out early, and seemed to be glaring down at the god of war, he turned up and glared back.

"Who convinced you, and why?" The fox asked.

"None of your business and none of your business." The god said, his glare turning to the fox, which made the moon glare harder.

"Right, well what do I have to do?"

"I don't know, umm…" The moon glared harder at the god and he winced, "right, okay, there are some hunters of Artemis around here, somewhere," the fox froze in place, "I want you to find them and deliver this." He pulled a box bigger than the fox from his saddle bags.

"Y-you want me to go to the hunters?" Whiskers asked.

"Yes, I just said that." The war god said angrily, the moon seemed to burn, and the war god went pale, "now get going."

The fox stood there, nervously looking at the box, was this how he died?

(With the hunters)

After the news about Naruto, three of the groups searching were ecstatic, the fourth… well Zoe Nightshade was not scared of much, but failing her mistress was one of her biggest fears. She could not fail again.

They were currently camping in the medicine bow national park, they were headed back to camp, hoping to find Naruto, or his clones. They had just finished setting up camp after spending the past six hours driving, they had… precured a car from a man who had been a little too touchy when they stopped in a café. Not that the man could drive anymore… or ever again.

The car wasn't much, but it was better than walking to camp.

Just as they finished cooking a moose Zoe had caught, there was a flash of silver and the girls all bowed, Artemis had appeared before them. She looked happy, if the wide grin was any indication.

"Milady," Kurenai said, "what do we owe this honour?"

"Relax girls," the goddess said, "I am here to tell you good news."

"Really?" Anko asked.

"Yes, Naruto, or at least an incarnation of him, is on his way." The four were stunned.

"How? Where? When?" Anko asked.

The goddess looked annoyed, "Ares, he had him doing errands, he was caught on a camera live to Olympus while collecting a shield Ares left behind after one of his exploits with Aphrodite." She scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"Where is he then?" Yugao asked.

"Naruto appeared to have entered a deal of some kind with Ares, he agreed to do several errands for him, I just… asked him to lower that number to two, and have one of them be a delivery mission to you four." She smirked.

"That's great!" Anko said happily, the others agreeing with her.

"So, I want the four of you to make your way to Denver, he's already there, and now he will look for you."

"Thank you, Milady." Yugao said.

The goddess disappeared once more in a flash, leaving them.

"Well, let us make haste!" Zoe said, turning to their camp and packing her tent in a matter of seconds, and wrapping what meat she could to eat on the road and sacrificing the rest to her patron. "we now know where he is, and our search is nearing an end."

With that the others packed up and began the last stretch of the journey.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Yeah, welcome to the Christmas special! That has nothing to do with Christmas whatsoever and is honestly just a slightly longer than average chapter, but it's Christmas, so what better way to celebrate a Pagan holiday that was then turned into a Christian holiday and then became an excuse to spend money... You know what, Christmas is more fun than I'm making it out, but,** **regardless** **of your beliefs, you are reading a story about Greeks, at Christmas, so yeah... I don't know where I'm going with this, I honestly just started out with the intention of just saying it's** **Christmas, well, doesn't really matter, here's the story, hope you enjoy, and the chapter is pretty long, so be proud of me, yay!**

"Wake up!" Percy jolted awake and nearly headbutt Yagura who snapped her head back just in time to dodge. The son of Poseidon looked at his sister in confusion, she smiled down at him, "we'll be leaving soon, the boat's ready, we just need to wake the others."

"Right," Percy said, still half asleep, he looked around and rubbed his neck in pain, he looked around and found he was still on the sofa he had fallen asleep in, he turned his head and found Annabeth, who had found his shoulder to be a comfortable pillow. He looked around and found all of the others except for Yugito, the blonde was nowhere to be seen, he looked at his sister with a questioning glance, "where's Yugito?"

"Hmm?" Then his sister glanced at him and sniggered slightly, "she's…around." A mischievous smirk was on her face, looking too similar to the children of Hermes to be a coincidence.

"What do you-" But just then, Annabeth woke up with a start, she blinked, realised she had fallen asleep on Percy and stood up quickly, waking up Grover in the process.

"My lettuce!" The satyr yelled as he jumped to his hooves, he then glanced around in confusion, "what? Where are the rabbits?" He glanced around as if expecting a rabbit to come out of the shadows with nun-chucks and start attacking.

"It was just a dream G-man." Percy said.

"Right, right…" The goat-boy said.

"Where'd you get the cat?" Annabeth asked, gesturing to Percy's lap.

"Cat?" Sure enough, lying in his lap was a sleeping, blonde cat, he looked confused for a moment, "do you lot have pets?" He asked his sister.

The daughter of the sea laughed, "don't let her hear you say that. Now wake up the others, I want to get there soon."

"Okay, but… I mean do I wake it-"

"Her, and yes, she's one of the others isn't she, so get going, I'm going to make sure everything's working okay, come up once everyone's strapped in." She then left, going up on deck.

"What time is it?" Annabeth asked.

"Don't know, do you not have a watch?" Percy asked, gently nudging the cat in an effort to wake her up.

"No." Annabeth frowned, "but it should be pretty early, they said they could do two jumps a day, and the trip here was the first, I'd say early morning."

"Ugh." Percy said, still trying to wake the cat, but she wasn't budging, "come on, wake up."

Annabeth went to Roshi and shook him, he woke pretty easily, and seemed to know what was going on the moment he woke up. He then glanced around and scowled at Percy, who gave up waking the cat and instead lifted her up.

"Hey." The son of Athena said, "be gentle, and watch where your hands are, she won't appreciate you being too grabby."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked, but at that moment the cat woke up, blinked and then bit Percy on the thumb, he yelped and dropped her, but mid-air, the cat grew. It was like watching a time lapse video, first the cat started growing, then the fur disappeared, then she had hands and feet instead of paws and finally a mane of blonde hair grew from her scalp, clothes materialised over her form and the girl was suddenly in Percy's face.

"What's the big idea?!" She said, and Percy immediately recognised her, Yugito was apparently a cat.

"What?" Percy asked, confusion evident on his face, it was too early for any supernatural stuff to be happening.

"You heard me, pervert!" Yugito said, her face red with a blush, "you don't just grab a woman like that!"

"You're a cat." Percy said.

"So, just because I'm a cat sometimes, doesn't make me any less of a woman!" She looked annoyed, "how would you like it if someone woke you up by copping a feel?!"

"Wait… what?" Percy soon became very red.

"Jackson!" It seemed the commotion woke up the others, and Fu was looking mighty pissed, she reached for her hair clips and snapped them, a bow and quiver appearing in her hands. "I'm going to kill you."

"Wait!" Percy asked, now looking even redder, "it's not what it looks like!"

"You better tell me how it is, because it ain't looking too good for you right now!" Fu said, slowly notching an arrow.

"I - She – she was on top of me – Yagura told me to wake her up so I-" Percy tried to explain, but Fu launched an arrow at him, he only just managed to duck in time.

"Trust me, the next one won't miss!" Fu said, another arrow appearing in her hands in less time than it took to blink.

Before she could fire though, a grinning Roshi grabbed her wrist, "as funny as this all is, Jackson didn't do anything wrong." He explained what happened and the others just laughed at the situation, even Grover and Annabeth joined in, only the blushing Percy and Yugito weren't.

After they all stopped laughing, but before Annabeth went on her question spree about if she was an Animagus from Harry Potter, Percy relayed the message from Yagura, "… so get ready to go."

Everyone groaned, before begrudgingly making their way to the seats and strapping themselves in, and Percy made his way up to his sister, who was grinning when she saw how red he was.

"So, how did she react?" Yagura asked.

"Shut up." He muttered, "we good to go?"

"Yup, now, let's go." Yagura said, slamming her palm down on the button and sending them hurtling downwards.

For Percy, the second time was even better than the first, on his last trip he was too busy trying to figure out why he hadn't imploded to enjoy the scenery. Now though, he managed to look around, he spotted schools of fish shimmering like a thousand raindrops, a glimmering blob too far to identify what it was and a very bored looking octopus. He even spotted a great white shark munching on the school of fish.

When they reached the bottom, there was inky blackness for a second before they bounced back and started bobbing about again. He smiled at his sister, happy that this was just something the two of them could see, she had said that the pressure was too much for anyone else to be anywhere but beneath the deck. This was something for just the two of them to enjoy, and that brought a smile to his face, it was like a secret world, well, a secret world where outside the other secret world he currently belonged to.

"That was nice." Percy said as they bobbed about, he looked out and recognised the beach as one from one of his dreams.

"Yeah, hold up, I'll give you three a lift over to the shore, then…" Yagura looked down slightly.

"Yeah…" Percy said, "you know, I know we've only known each other for… like a day, but it's been nice, ya know, having a sister."

"Yeah," she smiled, "good luck in your quest, and we'll see you when we get back to camp, I expect you to tell us all about your quest then, when none of the gods will care so much about what we hear." She looked down at the latch, "dad told me… about your quest." He looked shocked, "well, I assume it's your quest, the bolt. The others don't know, he told me after he asked about you, so… I just want to say, good luck. I can only guess where you're going." She winced a bit, "just… promise me… promise me you'll make it back, we mightn't know each other well, but you are my brother, and I feel like I can trust you."

"I'll try…. But… I can't make any promises." Percy said seriously.

Just then the boat stopped, and they were a few metres away from the beach, not the most legal of places to park, but there was no one around. Annabeth had guessed right, the sun had still not risen, so it looked like it was very early, four in the morning at the latest.

Just then the latch opened, and everyone climbed out of the bowels of the ship, by the smell it was aptly named, looks like Grover still can't hold his lunch.

Fu grabbed Percy and pulled him away, apologising for over-reacting, she then said goodbye and he was passed over to Yugito, who told him she forgave him, and that maybe next time it wouldn't be an accident, which caused him to blush up a storm. Annabeth glared at her after that, and Percy was glared at by all of Yugito's brothers.

Annabeth said goodbye to her brother and the others shared brief goodbye's, they seemed to get along well, but they had only known each other for a day, and they would probably meet in the future.

The questers made their way over to the port side and looked into the water, none really looking like they wanted to swim.

"Sorry we don't have lifeboats or anything to get you to shore, but Garra will send you across."

Before they could question how he could do this, sand gathered in front of Garra and made a magic carpet out of sand. Before they could question it, it had lifted them and dropped them onto the shore, the sand flew back to the ship, which hastily made its way out to sea a bit before turning to go north.

As soon as they were out of sight Grover collapsed to the ground, sighing deeply, a grin on his face. The two demi-gods looked at him in confusion, but he just smiled again.

"Okay, I'll bite, why do you look so happy?" Annabeth asked.

"You mean you aren't?" The two of them looked at him in confusion, "I suppose you wouldn't know, but those lot are… bad news. They are some of the strongest demi-gods sure, but there are rumours about them, mostly from the other nature spirits, but I heard some stuff from Chiron."

"What? What are the rumours?" Annabeth asked.

"Well, apparently they are… well, what Ares said, sure you mightn't of seen it now, but I heard from some of the dryads that have been around when they were there, they are vicious. The blonde one who was a cat, apparently, she can light herself on fire, she nearly burned down the forest around camp. The read-head, he makes lava, from nothing, and can control it, he even messed with the lava wall. The green haired one… I don't know much, about her, but B, he blew up a few trees with his lightning. The nymphs were terrified of them, even Chiron, he seemed worried when I told him they were there on the bus. Mr D, he… he actually looked worried too, but more at the thought of them coming to camp."

"But they're not bad." Percy said, trying to defend his new sister, "maybe they're just exaggerating."

"I don't know," Grover said, "they annoyed Lady Artemis, I don't know the details, but she was supposed to bring them all to camp, five of them didn't come with her I think. Only four went, and when she arrived she was annoyed, according to some nymphs, she cursed someone to be a wraith until the end of time."

"You're joking." Annabeth said.

"No, loads of dryads have seen her. She wears a black cloak and a mask that can never be removed, when she appears, you just want to run. The dryads stay away when they see her, all animals flee at her mere presence and any human that crosses her path is mutilated." Grover was looking around clearly terrified, he clearly believed every word he was saying.

"Why would she do that?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know, but I know it has something to do with them, anyone who would cause a goddess to do that…" he glanced around as if afraid something would pop out and kill him, "well, let's just say I'm glad to be off their boat."

They were all silent for a moment before Percy walked over to the ocean once more, Grover and Annabeth followed, confused.

"What now?" Annabeth asked.

Percy didn't seem to be listening, instead he just started walking out into the water, up to his feet, then his legs then his chest.

"Percy?" Annabeth asked. "What are you doing? You know how polluted that water is? There's all kinds of toxic-" But his head went under the surface and he disappeared.

"Is he insane?" Grover asked.

Annabeth looked worriedly at the surface, "let's hope not, I mean he survived the boat ride here…" She looked unsure though.

"Why do you think Poseidon wants him here, now?" Grover asked, his eyes staying on the spot Percy was last.

"I don't know." Annabeth grimaced, "I hate not knowing. He could be giving advice, or giving him help… or telling him the plan."

"He's not the thief." Grover said, looking annoyed, "I can't believe-"

"I'm not saying that." Annabeth said, "I trust him, he… he isn't the thief, he couldn't steal anything. I'm just saying what it could be. That is the least likely option."

"Good." Grover said. He then looked up at the sky confused, "is it just me or is there something weird going on with the weather."

He was right, the sky had been sunny, ever since they had arrived in Denver and met Fu, Hana and Yagura, but now the sky was blackening, thunder rumbled, and the clouds looked ready to spill over. The sea, which had been previously calm, was now looking like the beginnings of a storm, with the exception of the beech and, what seemed like a straight line all the way out into the ocean, where it looked like Percy was.

Meanwhile Percy was bobbing about on the bottom of the beautiful grimy sea, waiting for something to happen, he had been led here by a shark that acted like a puppy, swimming around him excitedly, he absentmindedly pet him as he waited.

"Percy Jackson." A melodious voice, that sounded so much like Percy's mother it hurt, came from the darkness, followed by a glimmering movement. Her shape became clearly as she came closer, she had black hair waving around in the ocean's current and wore a green dress the same colour as seaweed. Light flickered around her form, illuminating the stallion sized sea horse she rode. She dismounted and smiled at Percy, "you've come far, Percy Jackson, well done." The sea horse and the shark swam around, playing an underwater version of tag, zipping around and making noises that sounded like laughter.

"You're the woman who spoke to me in the Mississippi river." Percy said, bowing to her.

"Yes, I am a Nereid, a spirit of the sea. It is hard for me to appear so far upriver, but the naiads, my freshwater cousins helped sustain my lifeforce. They honour lord Poseidon, though they do not serve in his court."

"And... you serve in Poseidon's court?"

She nodded. "It has been many years since a child of the Sea God has been born. We have watched you with great interest."

"If my father is so interested in me," I said, "why isn't he here? Why doesn't he speak to me?"

A cold current rose out of the depths.

"Do not judge the Lord of the Sea too harshly," the Nereid said. "He stands at the brink of an unwanted war. He has much to occupy his time. Besides, he is forbidden to help you directly. The gods may not show such favouritism."

"Even to their own children?"

"Especially to them. The gods can work by indirect influence only- "

"What about Yagura?" Percy asked, she had said she had spoken to their father.

The nereid smiled sadly, "your sister is a strange case, due to the conditions of her birth, her and her siblings can bend the laws more freely. My lord has done all he can for her, but her story is a sad one. Her situation and yours are vastly different, but that is her story to tell, for now, I have come to give you a warning, and a gift."

"But-"

She held out her hand, stopping Percy in his track as three white pearls flashed in her palm.

"I know you journey to Hades' realm," she said. "Few mortals have ever done this and survived: Orpheus, who had great music skill; Hercules, who had great strength; Houdini, who could escape even the depths of Tartarus. Do you have these talents?"

"Umm... no, ma'am."

"Ah, but you have something else, Percy. You have gifts you have only begun to know. The oracles have foretold a great and terrible future for you, should you survive to man-hood. Poseidon would not have you die before your time. Therefore, take these, and when you are in need, smash a pearl at your feet."

"What will happen?"

"That," she said, "depends on the need. But remember: what belongs to the sea will always return to the sea."

"What about the warning?"

Her eyes flickered with green light. "Go with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all. Hades feeds on doubt and hopelessness. He will trick you if he can, make you mistrust your own judgment. Once you are in his realm, he will never willingly let you leave. Keep faith. Good luck, Percy Jackson." She summoned her sea horse and rode to the depths.

"Wait!" Percy called desperately. "At the river, you said not to trust the gifts. What gifts?"

"Good-bye, young hero," she called back, her voice fading into the depths. "You must listen to your heart." She became a speck of glowing green, and then she was gone.

Percy kicked off the ground and followed the shark back to the beach, he told the other two what had happened and showed them the pearls.

Annabeth grimaced, "no gift comes without a price."

"They were free."

"No." She shook her head. "'There is no such thing as a free lunch.' That's an ancient Greek saying that translated pretty well into American. There will be a price. You wait."

With that cheery thought, they left the beach, going into the city and going to find their way to Hades.

(With the jinchuuriki)

They sailed in silence, they were so close now, they now needed to make it to San Francisco, and at the speed they were going, they would be there in four or five hours. Yagura made a clone to drive the ship and they all went downstairs again to watch some more Monty Python, now though, they couldn't understand many of the jokes, before, Annabeth, and occasionally Percy, gave them context. Now they still understood and awful lot of them, but it just seemed to be missing something.

"Your brother was alright." Fu said, out of the blue, "he seemed like a nice guy."

"Yeah." Yagura agreed, "your sister too," she nodded to Roshi.

"Yeah…"

They continued watching for a bit before they got to a scene where they all just didn't understand the joke.

"Who are the Spanish Inquisition?" Garra asked.

"I don't know." Roshi said.

"We'll ask Percy when we go back to camp Half-blood." Yagura said, she then hit the pause button, "I don't think it's a good idea to keep watching, we're just going to end up confused." She sighed, "such a shame, this was really good."

"Yeah." Yugito said, "but we'll watch it when we have a…"

"Translator?" Roshi tried.

"I guess."

"Well, let's-" Yagura began but blinked and then wondered up to the deck, "we're here!" She called out.

"Good to hear." B said, "get to the pier." He then lurched forward clutching his stomach.

Fu sniggered, "take your time!" She said as she surfaced out of the boat and came across the sight of the San Francisco bay bathed in the bright glow of the morning sun. It looked beautiful, Fu looked directly at the sun, normally a complete no-no, but she was his daughter, she scrunched up her eyes and managed to see her dad waving at her in his car, he winked before turning away and driving on.

They came to the dock, which looked full, ships lined up everywhere, yachts, sailing boats and even a few jet-skis were all lined up, a few of their owners were on them, packing some things away. There was no room for the boat to park, that was a problem, they were going to be leaving it for a while probably while they tried to find the entrance. They couldn't just leave it unattended.

"Where are we going to park?" Yagura asked anxiously.

"I don't know." Fu said, "maybe we can try some-"

"-Hey are you Yagra Karti?" A voice shouted from the shore, they turned and saw a man standing there, he was wearing a suit, had thinning brown hair and glasses, in his hands was a clipboard.

"Yagura Karatachi?" Yagura said, scowling slightly at the use of her second name, she hadn't used it in years.

"Sorry," he adjusted his glasses and smiled awkwardly, "your father told me to inform you that the camp has their own area for their fleet…" He glanced back down at the board and looked confused, "sorry, for their kayaks for when they go out. He said to tell you there's enough room for your own ship."

The man was clearly mortal, especially if the mist was affecting him like that, Poseidon, or was it Neptune, must have organised this.

"Thank you." Yagura said, "did he say where?"

"Yeah, at the very end of that dock, there." He pointed to the furthest dock from them, then paused and looked back at the clipboard, "he also asked you to laugh as much as you want when you see the state of them…" he re-adjusted his glasses once more, "sorry, he said to just tell you to teach them a lesson." He looked confused before he seemed to come to an epiphany, "are you an instructor at the camp?" He asked.

"Yes, we're all here for a part time job, I'm teaching kayaking and swimming, my sister does arts and crafts," she pointed to Hana, who scowled slightly, "archery," Fu beamed as she pointed, "sky diving," B sniggered as she gestured to him, "Latin classes," Roshi smirked, "health and beauty," Yugito scowled at her, "and my brother here is running the sand castle competitions." They all held back laughs at Garra's face when she pointed to him.

"Sounds nice, is this a new camp coming here?" The man asked, "because my son wants to go to camp this summer, I don't suppose there's any way you could get a word in with management?"

"Sorry, not that sort of camp, it's a family thing," Yagura said, "but thanks for all your help." She then turned the boat to the dock the man had gestured to.

"Sand castle's?" Garra asked with a deadpan.

"Yeah, I know, what were you thinking, who'd want to go to a class like that?" Yagura asked mock seriously, "now, what are we looking for, the 'Roman fleet', right?"

"Yeah, but he also said to laugh at it as much as we want, so it mustn't be… no way." Fu said, spotting a purple tarp at the end of the dock, it was tiny and looked like it could only hold a little dingy ship.

"The Roman navy?" Yagura asked, as they docked beside it, ropes flew from the ship and tied themselves around the dock at her silent command. They all disembarked and Yagura removed the tarp, exposing the height of the Roman's navy, a small rowboat with no oars, faded blue paint, and the name Pax written on the bow in gold letters.

Yagura laughed slightly, "that's a joke, right?"

"Nope, it seems that the Roman's aren't much for sea travel." Yugito said, chuckling slightly.

"I have to agree, I'm no fan of the sea." B said, and found himself sputtering out the sea water that splashed his face.

"Let's go." Yagura said, scowling, "I think it's time we go teach the Roman's a lesson."

They checked in with the GPS on the ship and found where the camp would be, it said the entrance was in the Oakland hills, so they would have quite a long run ahead of them.

They actually managed to make it in just over an hours' time, their speed helping them drastically, and now they were trying to find any obvious entrance to the camp, they had been searching for nearly ten minutes before they started to get annoyed.

"Come on, what did Lupa tell you to do to find the camp?" Roshi asked.

"Just to follow our instincts." Garra replied, though he sounded annoyed, "which are telling me to go to this hill."

"There's nothing here." Hana gestured around uselessly, "no camp, no demi-gods, nor romans, no nothing."

Roshi sighed, "I don't know, the gods wouldn't all lie to us for, no reason, would they?"

"No, we're missing something." Garra muttered.

Roshi looked around him aimlessly, before his eyes fell to the highway bellow them, he smirked, "it's beneath us."

"No need to sound so haughty." Hana muttered.

"No, it's literally beneath us, it must be built into the hill." He said, he came to the edge of the cliff and smiled to his siblings, "race you to the bottom." He then ran down vertically, using chakra to keep his feet connected to the ground. The others quickly followed, Fu sprouted wings and flew while Garra flew on his sand and the others simply sprinted after him, catching up quickly. They raced down, neck to neck, but Roshi jumped at the end, clearing the chain link fence that was in his way and making it to the road.

"I win." Roshi said triumphantly once they reached the bottom.

"You cheated." Fu pouted, ignoring her laughing brother.

"Is that it?" Garra asked, gesturing to the metal door in between the two tunnels.

"That… is a bad place to put the entrance of a camp." Roshi said, "surely it would be a good idea to have the entrance in a place that won't get you run over every time you try and enter, right?"

"Yeah, but there's probably other entrances, you just need to know where they are." Fu said, "in the waterfall village, there were loads of them, you only figured them out from living there, or were only visible from the inside."

"Fair enough." Roshi said, "well, let's go meet the Romans."

"No, Wowmen's." Fu corrected before breaking into a fit of giggles, the others soon followed.

"Okay, let's go introduce ourselves to the Wowmens." Roshi said, they all ran across the lanes of traffics, the mortals beeping rudely at them, and they ran for the door, when the reached it they saw no reason for it to lead to a Roman camp.

"Are we sure this is it?" Fu asked.

"Yeah, like Lupa said, my instincts tell me it's here." Garra said.

"Why's there no guards?" Roshi asked.

"Don't know, maybe there's a border like-" Yugito began but thunder rumbled, "I guess that's are que to not talk about that."

"Right." Roshi said, "you're probably right. Now let's go." He and Hana began to shift the door and came face to face with two shocked looking kids, both were about fifteen or sixteen and had similar features, they both had sandy blonde hair, hooked noses and blue eyes. The one on the right was taller by about half a foot and had his hair cut short, the other had longer hair and a scar going from his eyebrow into his hairline and beyond by the look of it.

They both had their helmets off, held in their arms, and wore armour over purple T-shirts and jeans, swords were sheathed at their hips and they had square shields on their backs. They looked really shocked to see them and both froze for a minute before reaching for their swords. Yagura stopped the one on the right by pulling out her staff first and holding it, hook first, to his throat; while Roshi had his spear out before the other could react and had it aimed at the poor boy's head.

They were all silent for a moment, neither boy daring to breather before Garra spoke up, "put the weapons down, we're not here to threaten anyone." Both siblings reluctantly did so, but kept them out just in case the kids did anything rash.

"Who are you?" The one on the right asked.

"I am Garra, this is Yugito, Yagura, Roshi, Hana, Fu and B." He said calmly.

"You're demi-gods?" The one on the left inquired, Garra nodded, "Lupa never sent such a large group before." He said, glancing worriedly at the other.

"Now," Roshi said, ignoring the statement, "who are you?"

"Oh, I'm James, this is George, we're both children of Mercury," the smaller one said, "I don't suppose you know your heritage, do you?"

"Yes." Yagura answered simply.

"Really? Good, so who are your parents, or are you legacies?" George asked.

"Legacies?" Roshi asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"Children of demi-gods, your family has godly lineage from generations ago." James explained.

"No, we're demi-gods." Garra said.

"Right, so who are your parents?" George asked.

"That doesn't matter." Roshi said, he remembered his mother's words to him, her Roman form didn't seem to like the Roman's, so the feeling might be mutual. "We're here looking for someone."

"Looking for someone?" James asked.

"Yeah, now would you let us in or are you just going to stand there?" Fu asked irritably.

"But we have-" James began but the glares he got freaked him out, "w-we'll bring you to the legion." He stuttered.

"Good, now let's go." Garra said, they entered the tunnel, James leading them and George staying behind.

"Hey, so, if it's no bother." James said, "could you not say to anyone that we were inside." He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "see, we're on guard duty, but it's more of a punishment job these days. We're supposed to be outside, guarding the door, but it's summer, the armour heats up real quick and we aren't allowed to bring seats out."

"You're on guard duty!" Yagura said, uncharacteristically annoyed, "you should be guarding from monsters."

He scoffed. "No monster's dumb enough to attack camp head on. So, we don't do much but wait for demi-gods, and that's a rare occurrence, like once a month. Please don't tell anyone about it. We know anyone on guard duty does the same, hell, the senate knows that, but if they catch us…"

"Do your job right and you won't get I trouble." Yagura sounded angrier than normal.

"Yagura, geez, calm down." Fu said.

Yagura bit back a retort and sighed to herself, "sorry, I'm just… apprehensive."

"Yeah…" Their guide said, "I was the same, when Lupa said I could join the legion…"

"Wait-" Fu started but they had reached a light.

"Welcome, to New Rome."

The jinchuuriki were amazed at the view of the camp stretches of forest merged seamlessly with golden plains, smaller hills hidden in the valley sprawled across it. A river lay in front of them, acting as a boundary, it wound from a large lake in the centre and from a bird's eye view resembled a large 'G'.

There was a large city in the centre of the valley, beside the lake, marble buildings bleached the colour of clouds, their tiled roofs glimmered red in the midday sun. Some of them were domed and looked like enormous monuments to Roman architecture, others were palaces, with golden, glimmering doors and enormous grassy gardens. A Roman coliseum stood beside an oval racetrack, on one large hill, temples stood tall. A large aqueduct stretched across the hills.

Just across the river a military encampment stood, a quarter mile square, surrounded by ramparts, the tops with sharpened spikes and a dried-up moat with spikes at the bottom. There were watchtowers on each corner with several sentries on guard each manning an enormous crossbow. Even from where they stood they could hear the sounds from inside the camp, hammers banging, kids shouting and even some laughter sounded from the barracks. They could see people carrying weapons to and fro, polishing their armour, and overall looking like soldiers, they didn't look as serious as most others though, they looked like they were enjoying it.

"Wow." Roshi said.

"Yeah." James nodded in agreement, "even now that I've seen this so many times…" He smiled and walked ahead, leading them down to the military encampment, when they reached the river he looked at them, "now, we have to wade through the river, you might want to take anything delicate out of your pockets."

"Do we have to go through the water?" Garra asked, his sand was not good in water, but if it was a camp tradition or something, he figured he may as well follow it.

The guard laughed, "unless you can fly."

"Oh, good." Fu said.

The guard took a double take when she unfurled a pair of insect wings and fluttered a foot above the ground, "wow, wait what? How?" He asked, confusion and shock written clearly on his face.

"I agree." Garra said, sitting down on nothing, but before he fell, sand appeared and picked him up, he sat Indian style and just floated.

B concentrated really hard and was suddenly floating above the ground.

"How long have you been able to do that?" Yugito asked sounding mildly surprised, like he had learned to juggle, not, oh I don't know, learned to break the fundamental laws of gravity.

"Don't got no time to chat," B said, "can't hold this for long or I'll fall flat." He then flew over the river and landed on the other side, panting slightly, "got to respect our little bro, can do that longer, that Naruto." He panted out.

James jaw was practically glued to the ground.

Yugito sighed, "I guess we're just going to walk it." She said, James was about to comment on how things couldn't get stranger when Yugito did what she said and walked over the river. When she was done she panted like she had run a marathon, she looked very confused and glanced at the river.

"Sis, you okay?" Fu asked tauntingly, "getting out of shape?"

"Yeah, no. I just…" She took another glance at the river, "nothing."

Then Fu flew over, looking concerned, "are you alright." She then looked tired, and immediately landed again, "what was that?" She asked, just as tired as her sister.

"You felt it too?" Yugito asked.

"Yeah, like it was draining…" Fu's eyebrows rose, and she turned back to the others, "the water's draining our chakra!" She yelled.

The jinchuuriki looked shocked, then worried, they glanced nervously at each other.

They all looked ready to speak but it was Roshi who spoke, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's not chakra exhaustion or anything, but it's like… like wasting loads of chakra in one technique, like getting a cramp." Yugito said.

"Right." Roshi said, the others looked calmer, except Garra.

"How much chakra? For an average person?"

"I don't know, I guess it would probably drain a jonin, nearly completely." Yugito said.

Garra immediately crossed, he started sweating and his sand went to gourd mode immediately, the other followed, wondering what was wrong with their brother. Even James looked worried, he followed, but simply waded through the water. Garra was speaking to himself quietly, muttering in Latin, then Japanese with a few snippets of English. James managed to make it just before they left.

"How did you all do that?" He asked when he reached them, they were all looking at a worried Garra.

"Doesn't matter." Roshi replied. "Garra, what's wrong?"

"What if they didn't make it." He replied quietly.

"Who?" Fu asked but Roshi grimaced, seeming to understand.

"Temari and Kankuro, they… their chakra isn't as strong as any of ours, they would have drained quicker and lost more." Garra said.

"How do you know those two?" James asked.

"They're here?" Garra asked, turning to him quickly, "where are they?"

"Umm, I'm not sure right now, you'd have to ask someone in their cohort." He answered, "I'm in the fourth cohort."

"So, they're alive?" Garra asked.

"Yeah, they're hardly Lares." He said with a short laugh.

There was some commotion behind the barracks as the gates were opened, they all turned to the gates and were surprised by the figure who came out. A boy with brown spiky hair, brown eyes and lightly tanned skin, he was wearing armour and had several scrolls tied to his legs. He was heavily muscular and stood just below average height. He smiled when he saw them and walked over to Garra and brought him into a hug, the sand didn't stop him.

"Garra." The boy said, his brother recognised him by his voice.

"Kankuro?" He asked, "you… aren't wearing makeup."

"It's been years and that's the first thing you say?" He asked slightly annoyed as he broke out of his hug.

"Yeah, you always wore it, I can barely recognise you without it." Garra replied.

His brother smirked, "well, then I'll leave you to the shitstorm you'll face when you have to talk to Temari." He smirked as Garra went slightly paler.

"When did you get so… big?" Garra asked, gesturing to the muscle's Kankuro now boasted, he could easily rival that the Schwarzenegger himself in the muscles department, not so much in height, but he still looked pretty strong.

"I don't know, I assume it's because we're children of Juno. You know the story of Hercules, how he got his strength from our mother, well, apparently we get it directly from the source. Being here made it far easier to realise my strengths, back… home… I was told to join the puppet force when I found out I didn't have a wind affinity."

"Right." Garra said.

"Hey, did you go across the river?" The older boy looked worried, "that thing drained me and Temari of chakra."

"Same, it was-"

"No, you don't understand, it literally drained us of chakra." He said, "when we left camp we were jonin level… sure the aging thing changed that a bit, but we got back to low jonin. When we came here we were barely genin." He said, "we can use some techniques, but it's harder and our reserves are coming back way too slowly, Temari reached mid-genin level last week, I'm just below her."

The jinchuuriki looked around one another, looking confused, before Garra replied, "that… didn't happen, it just felt like we wasted a lot of chakra in one technique."

"You… you can still use your chakra?" Kankuro asked in surprise.

"Yeah." Garra said, his sand shifted around into the shape of ball, then a cage, then a square, randomly shifting through shapes, "our chakra's already back to normal."

Kankuro looked confused before a flash of something they didn't recognise flashed through his eyes, he turned away and walked into the barracks. "I can handle them, James, you go back to guard duty." He shouted to their previous guide.

He led them through the barracks, they got some looks, a few people muttered that there had never been such a large group of demi-gods at once before. There were also ghosts, which… yeah that was new, they were shimmering purple, like they were made of lavender flavoured static. They wondered about, but looked uneasy at the presence of the newcomers, they took one glance and seemed to hesitate, some left immediately, some muttered and stared at them and a few bowed to them as they passed.

This confused the more living inclined campers, who just watched with even more confusion. Kankuro walked ahead, leading them through the numerous people who were staring, he did nothing to stop them, but the jinchuuriki glared at anyone who caught their eyes, they stopped staring, until they were out of eyesight anyway.

They finally stopped at the centre of camp, where two wide stone-paved roads met at a T. A street sign labelled the road to the main gates as via praetoria. The other road, cutting across the middle of camp, was labelled via principalis.

Under those markers were hand-painted signs like Berkeley 5 miles; NEW ROME 1 MILE; OLD ROME 7280 MILES; HADES 2310 MILES (pointing straight down); RENO 208 MILES, AND CERTAIN DEATH: YOU ARE HERE!

Other than the threat of certain death, the place looked pretty clean and orderly. The buildings were freshly whitewashed, laid out in neat grids like the camp had been designed by the happiest OCD person in the world. The barracks had shady porches, where campers lounged in hammocks or played cards and drank sodas. Each dorm had a different collection of banners out front displaying Roman numerals and various animals: eagle, bear, wolf, horse etc.

Along the Via Praetoria, rows of shops advertised food, armour, weapons, coffee, gladiator equipment, and toga rentals.

At one corner of the crossroads stood the most impressive building, a two-story wedge of white marble with a columned portico like an old-fashioned bank. Roman guards stood out front. Over the doorway hung a big purple banner with the gold letters SPQR embroidered inside a laurel wreath.

"So, now where?" Garra asked.

"Now…" Kankuro said, turning back to them an evil grin on his face, "now you explain to our very rational sister where you have been for the past few years and why you haven't visited in all that time, while I enjoy the show."

"Kankuro." A voice they recognised immediately, Kankuro paled slightly, "what are you saying about me being rational?" The turned to the via building and found a woman striding out confidently, she was wearing golden armour that gleamed in the sunlight and had several medals decorating it. She had teal eyes a shade darker than Garra's and had sandy blonde hair pulled into four ponytails on top of her head. On her back was a large battle fan folded up, it was golden around the side and the sides looked thin, like blades.

"Temari?" Garra asked, knowing right away that it was her, she took a glance and gasped in surprise.

"Garra?" She asked, she then walked over to him and looking down at him, she smiled and brought him into a hug which he returned happily. She then immediately pulled him out of it and grabbed him by the ear, his sand didn't come to his defence, it was smart for a loose granular substance.

"Ow, ow, ow." Garra exclaimed, "let go."

"Oh no, you haven't called, you haven't visited, you haven't even written a letter!" She started calmly but her voice slowly rose, "you are getting punished." She said, dragging him into the building she just came from, Kankuro sighed, "don't think I've forgot about what you said Kankuro, get your ass in here!" The boy followed dejectedly. The other jinchuuriki looked at each other before, as one, shrugging and following the trio.

If the outside of the building was nice, then the inside was downright grand. On the ceiling glittered a mosaic of Romulus and Remus under their adopted mother Lupa (the jinchuuriki who had spent time with her had told their siblings about her stories). The floor was polished marble. The walls were draped in velvet, and along the back wall stood a display of banners and wooden poles studded with bronze military symbols. In the centre was one empty display stand, as if the main banner had been taken down for cleaning or something.

In the back corner, a stairwell led down. It was blocked by a row of iron bars like a prison door. In the centre of the room, a long wooden table was neatly filled with scrolls, notebooks, computer monitors, daggers, and a large bowl filled with jelly beans, which seemed kind of out of place.

The most interesting part of the room however were the scowling children of Juno in the middle, the two brothers were scowling for a different reason than their sister though.

The next few minutes have been cut due to mutual embarrassment from certain parties.

"Idiots." Temari said after she had finished giving her punishments, her brothers were rubbing the various bruises that had formed in… sensitive places. The other jinchuuriki were sniggering at the door, having not entered while Temari was giving out her punishments.

"Alright," Fu said as she entered the room, "now that that is taken care of, down to business." The other's followed, "have either of you seen Naruto?"

Temari's face become a mask of confusion, "have you not found him? I assumed that he and your other brother didn't come because they didn't want to be here."

"No," Fu sighed, "Utakata's chasing a lead on Naruto, his father gave him a possibility."

"Who's his father? Come to think of it, we don't know of any of your parentage." Temari asked.

"His father is H-" Fu paused, "Pluto? Right?" Roshi nodded "right, sorry, we're just not used to the names."

Temari looked uncomfortable but didn't mention anything, even Kankuro winced at the mention, "right." The daughter of Juno said, "and yourselves."

Roshi looked at all of them and spoke for all of them, knowing that they may make a mistake with the names, they were confusing, "Yugito is a daughter of Venus; Fu is a daughter of Apollo; Hana is a daughter of Vulcan;" they nodded at that, they seemed the safest to say, probably the most common, "B is a son of Jupiter;" at this they looked slightly surprised "Yagura is a daughter of Neptune;" now they looked very shocked, "and I am a son of Minerva." Roshi finished, they somehow looked even more shocked at that.

"B-but Minerva is a maiden." Temari said.

"She still is," Roshi said, "she made me in the same way she was made." He explained, causing them to relax.

"Shit." Temari cursed, "look, don't reveal your heritage, your three," she pointed to Fu, Hana and Yugito, "you're fine, you… you shouldn't matter, Jason was a bigger shock," B looked confused, "and you two, don't under any circumstances reveal your heritage." Yagura looked confused while Roshi just looked accepting, it seemed his mother had no children here.

"Why?" Yagura asked, "why should we hide our parentage?"

"Children of Neptune… aren't well received here. Your father isn't fond of Romans, for the most part the Romans fear him." She explained.

"Explains your shit navy." Yagura muttered.

"The last time there was a child of Neptune here… it didn't end well." She turned to Roshi, "and as for Minerva, she swore an oath to never have children, to hear that she broke it-"

"I'd like to correct you," Roshi said, "she swore to be a maiden, nothing against having children"

"Regardless, many Roman's would not take this news well." Temari said.

"As for you Garra…" She looked at the table, "when we arrived we weren't… accepted easily. It took some time for us to be respected, we had to do several quests to get to where we are." She looked at her wrist which looked like a barcode with a flower – a lotus above it. "I think it would be best for us to claim you as our brother, it may be hard, but we are respected now," Kankuro looked down at this, looking annoyed, while Temari pondered for a moment, "we may be able to get you some letters of recommendation."

"It doesn't matter much, we're losing focus." Fu interrupted. Temari scowled at her while Kankuro didn't seem to care.

Temari looked like she was going to say something but Garra beat her to it, "she's right," Temari's scowl deepened, "I know we need to catch up and all, but have you seen Naruto?"

"No, he hasn't been to camp either." Temari said, the jinchuuriki sighed as one, they all slumped and looked annoyed.

"Stupid coin flip." Fu muttered.

"Wait, what about a fox?" Roshi asked, "we recently found out that he's in his fox form, have you seen a silver fox between the size of a puppy and a pony?"

"No," Temari said, "I'm sorry, but he isn't here." She didn't even bat an eye at the strangeness of a pony sized fox.

They all cursed in a mix of English, Japanese, Greek, French and Latin, Temari smacked Garra over the head for swearing, which only lightened the mood a little bit.

Temari sighed to herself, "alright, now we'll take you to the augur, and I'll arrange for someone to give you lot the tour while we catch up."

"Augur?" Fu asked in confusion.

"Yeah," Temari's nose scrunched up, "he's new to it, he's a legacy of Apollo, and apparently has inherited the power of auguries from him." She sighed, "he's lived here all his life and comes from a long line of augurs, and though he's young, he's… accurate."

They made their way to temple hill, they moved quickly, Temari no doubt wanting to get this over with, they passed temples, people and fauns. Temari explained that they were little more than beggars here, and just sort of hung around the camp. None of them approached at the sight of the Temari, she explained it was because she was Praetor, basically she was in charge. She explained she got the position when she saved the camp, but refused to say any more.

When they reached the biggest temple, they ran into a blonde kid, about ten years old, with a scar over his lip and electric blue eyes. He looked confused at the sight of Temari, but she just glanced at him and he looked away, making his way back down temple hill in a rush.

"This is the temple of Jupiter." Temari said.

The temple was huge, at least sixty feet tall and domed at the top, they could clearly see that the inside was decorated with purple tapestries with golden text. On the outside marble columns dominated the view, making the temple look ancient, but it was obviously kept in good shape as the marble was still gleaming white. When they entered, they realised the tapestries were covered in a mix of golden text, drawings and random symbols. The floor two had Latin etched into it, fancy sayings and prayers were all they could make out, as it was written sideways.

In the centre of the temple was a marble alter, above which was a giant golden statue of a man in a toga with a lightning bolt in hand. A breeze blew through the temple, humming through the temple, showing that it was complete open to the wind.

Temari glanced around, as if looking for someone, "where is he?" She asked herself.

"I don't know, he's usually here when he's needed." Kankuro said, also looking around, "unless he's trying something new and has an entrance to do…"

"Surely he would know we're coming." Temari said.

"Gotta say," Fu said, "so far, your augur's a bit of a let-down."

"Oh, be quiet," Temari said, "Kankuro, go find Octavian, kid probably went on a break." He nodded and left the temple, quickly going back to the barracks.

"Is he supposed to be waiting here all day?" Yagura asked, "if so that sounds like a bad job."

"No, but he's the new augur, his father has recently passed away and he inherited the position." Temari said.

"How old is he?" Roshi asked.

"Eleven I think." Temari said, "he joined the legion two years ago, his family have lived here for generations, they have been the augur's for as long as the family line has been here."

"Seems a bit young." Yugito said.

"Not really, he doesn't have to do much to read the auguries, just cut up some stuffed animals and reading the entrails." Temari said, "there's more to it, but that's kind of what it looks like." She frowned.

"Stuffed animals?" Fu giggled.

"We used to use real ones, but it was much messier, and it traumatised some kid or something." Temari said.

"Right…" Fu said.

They turned when they heard people running up the hill, and saw Kankuro and a blonde kid, "sorry, Praetor, I wasn't aware you would be here." The kid said, he didn't look like much, he was small and scrawny, and wore a toga that had a few grass stains, probably from the hill. He had an ornate knife sheathed at his side, but other than that, looked extremely under protected compared to the kids wielding axes and swords at the camp.

"Is it not your job to know?" Fu asked cheekily, the kid blushed slightly before glaring at Fu.

"You-" He began but was cut off by Temari.

"Don't, she's right, you are supposed to be in the temple at the ready, prepared to give the auguries." She said, "why weren't you."

He blushed again before looking up, "well Praetor, I do have other tasks to do, I was-"

"Are you neglecting your duties?" She asked.

"No Praetor," he said, slightly nervous, "but I-"

"Then why weren't you here waiting for us, surely you would have known that we were coming." She raised an eyebrow and the augur looked down.

"I apologise Praetor, but the auguries told me nothing of any new arrivals." He admitted, "but I-"

"I don't care for excuses, augur." Temari said, "but if your powers are failing then I'm sure we can find a suitable replacement."

"No!" He yelled, but looked at the floor again at the glare he was given, "I mean… my powers are working fine."

"Fine, then, Octavian, do your job, we have seven newbies." Temari said.

"Seven!" He said, looking surprised, "but-but I didn't." He looked at the jinchuuriki, then Temari, "yea, of course Praetor." He said, making his way over to the altar, he leaned behind the altar and picked out a stuffed octopus, he raised his knife and cut it open, he emptied the stuffing out onto the altar and muttered a few words in Latin.

He then scowled at the stuffing, as if it were mocking him, for a few minutes there was silence, before Fu coughed and stage whispered to Temari, "should it take this long?"

Temari scowled at her but didn't say anything, but as time went forward, both her and Octavian's scowls deepened. The jinchuuriki all looked confused, they were talking to each other in the link, and Kankuro just looked pretty bored.

"This is…" Octavian muttered.

"What's wrong?" Temari asked.

"I…" Octavian said, "nothing," he turned away, "m-must be something wrong with the octopus." He said, brushing the stuffing off the altar and taking out a stuffed cat, again nothing happened, he went through a dog, a turtle, a monkey, a horse, a bug and a slug, before finally stopping at a stuffed fox… that one was particularly hard to watch get disembowelled.

"Okay, now that we've killed all the little kids in this camp's best friends, can we get to the bit where you tell us the future?" Fu asked.

"The augurs aren't supposed to-" Octavian started snidely.

"They're supposed to do something." Temari growled, "so what's going on?"

"I-I don't know." The legacy said, slightly worried, "I'm doing it right. I just…"

"What?" Temari asked.

"I don't know, I'm just not getting… anything." He said, now looking nervous, "there's something wrong with them!" He said, pointing at the jinchuuriki.

"No there's not." Temari said, deadly calm, she then turned to the jinchuuriki and switched to Japanese, " _this doesn't have anything to do with your… friends, does it?_ "

 _"_ _No, they shouldn't effect anything, at least not that I'm aware of, kids probably having an off day."_ Roshi said.

"What are you saying?" Octavian asked.

"We're just speaking Japanese, our native tongue." Temari said.

"You knew them?" The legacy asked.

"Yes," she glanced at Garra, he nodded, "Garra is our little brother."

The augur's eyes widened, "b-but then he's…"

"My son." A voice spoke, the occupants all turned and found a fifteen-foot woman standing in a toga, and a goatskin cloak, in her hand was a staff with a lotus blooming at the top. Octavian gasped and then bowed to her, Temari and Kankuro following, the jinchuuriki looked up at her and looked confused, but Garra broke the short silence that fell.

"Mother?" He asked, she smiled lightly but then schooled her features. Octavian looked ready to shout at the red head for speaking, only Juno's presence stopping him, while Temari and Kankuro shared a glance.

"Yes child," she glanced at the statue and grimaced slightly, "I told him to shave for his statue." She muttered to herself, to quietly for the campers to hear, but the jinchuuriki had stronger senses and smirked a little. The goddess took a breath and spoke in a commanding tone, "augur." Octavian shook and rose, facing the goddess, "you are to cease attempting to read their fates." The boy looked ready to interrupt but a glance from the goddess stopped him dead, "your attempts will fail, none will tell them their fates. Know that they bare my blessing and the blessing of all their parents, any unwarranted attempt on them will face the wrath of the gods."

"Y-yes Lady Juno." Octavian stuttered.

"Good." Juno said, she then glanced to Temari, "my daughter, you bring honour to me, and legion, I am proud of you. Your reign will bring Rome to new heights." Temari bowed her head at the praise, then the goddess turned to Kankuro, "you my son have brought me great pride too, I expect to see you aiming for the other Praetor position." The boy smiled and bowed his head.

"As for you Garra…" The goddess turned to her youngest who looked her right in the eye, "you have done me proud. I sense that in the future that pride will only grow."

"Thank you, mother." Garra said, unable to stop the smile.

"Therefore, I believe you are in need of a weapon to do so, I know you may believe that your sand will do so, but you will grow to appreciate this just as much. Like your siblings, I gift you your very own weapon." She placed her hand in front of her and it glowed for a while, causing the group to turn away, when it faded a square shield was in its place, the shield was nearly the same size as Garra and had a peacock feather symbol on the front. "It does not seem like much, but you will learn to wield it." Garra tentatively took the shield and held it in front of him. "Remember, to attack you need a good defence." She seemed to consider something, "some weapons need not be shown at all times." With that, the goddess disappeared.

They were all silent for a minute, the jinchuuriki eyeing the shield inquisitively, while the Romans were just shocked at the goddess appearing and disappearing like that.

"It's a nice shield." Roshi commented.

"How dare you not bow to a goddess!" Octavian roared as she disappeared.

"She's his mom, and everyone here is related to her in some way." Fu said.

"It does not do well to show disrespect." Temari said, "but you did not know, so your ignorance can be forgiven." She glared slightly, "for now."

"Right, okay, bow to the gods, got it." Fu said.

"Well, since you have no auguries," Octavian looked like he wanted to comment but thought better of it, "but have your parents vouching for you." Temari said seriously, "I think it is time for us to catch up." She said to Garra, "Octavian, lead the rest of them back to the city and give them a tour."

Octavian made a strange face, "that is the job of a legionnaire or probatio, I am the augur-"

"Who hasn't read the auguries, now do as I say before you are punished for disobedience." Temari all but shouted.

"We'll be okay we think." Roshi said, _"tell us when and where to meet up when you're done, Garra."_

" _Right,_ " Octavian watched them like a tennis match, but had is nose scrunched up like he didn't like the sport.

"Okay, well, see you, I don't know about you guys, but the bath houses here looked nice." Yagura said.

"I'm good, I'll just go see the sights, anyone else?" Fu asked.

"Sure," B said, "I'm up for the tour."

"I'll check to see if there are any forges, I have something on my mind." Hana said.

"I'm with Yagura." Roshi said, "a bath would be great about now."

"I'll check out the sights too." Yugito said.

"Well, see you soon." Garra said as they all left.

"They don't know what time dinner is?" Kankuro said after they had left.

"Don't worry, they'll know soon, just wait."

(With Whiskers)

The fox was not in a good mood. He had been wondering around looking for any trace of the hunters but, as it turned out, they were really good at not being found. Now, normally, he would have found a way out of this by now, but he swore an oath on the Styx and whatever was in the box was wanted by the hunters.

Speaking of, the box was really uncomfortable to carry as a fox, whatever was in wasn't making noise either, or at least not a lot. The fox could hear the soft padding of the inside as whatever was inside bounced off it, it was quiet, so it must be very insulated.

There was also something about the box, or rather what was in it, that just called to him, it was like he knew what was in it already. It was familiar, something he had spent his whole life with, but was only now realising was missing, and the fox didn't like it. As far as he knew, unless Annabeth was in the box, he wasn't interested.

So, he wandered aimlessly, Ares hadn't said where the hunters would be only that they were around somewhere. So, he had spent a day exploring the city, he found nothing, so he figured to try some of the more… environment appropriate places, and was now wondering aimlessly in a forest park with a big box.

"Why did I agree to this?" The fox asked himself.

"You were coerced." A familiar voice said.

He spun around, startled, looking for the source but found nothing, the voice was identical to the one he heard in the love ride, from his reflection. As he looked around he found nothing, no sign that anyone, or anything had been here other than him.

"Damn it, now I'm hallucinating." He muttered to himself, kind of hoping there wouldn't be a reply.

There wasn't.

At least not from the voice, but he heard voices not too far away, it looked like it was getting late, so they were probably campers. The scent of something cooking drafted through the forest and the fox sniffed longingly, he hadn't eaten since… he couldn't even remember, surely the people here wouldn't mind him stealing something to eat.

He padded through the forest, following the scent, getting closer he began to realise that it was rabbit, sure he preferred it raw, but cooked wasn't bad. Maybe he could pull off what he and Annie had done back in the day to get food, look adorable and sad, breaks people's hearts and makes them give you food or money. Now if they were hardcore hunters it probably wouldn't work, they would probably see that he fox was bigger than the rabbit and… wait… he sniffed again, he was getting close to the camp, but couldn't smell human.

He sniffed again, nothing, he could just smell the rabbit cooking, no human scent, none lingered anywhere near the camp. The wind was blowing his way, he should have smelled something, soap, body odour, cologne, perfume… something. However, he had a strange feeling, like there were people here, and he could only guess what kind.

As he made his way closer to the camp and no new scents appeared he was getting surer this was the hunters camp. Finally, he spotted the first licks of orange flames through the trees, it wasn't a particularly big fire, but it gave away their location.

He padded along through the undergrowth before he finally spotted the camp fully, it wasn't much, four matching, silver tents surrounding a fire with a spit on it. On the spit was a half-cooked rabbit, his mouth watered at the sight, but he didn't go for it immediately at the sight of the person tending the fire.

She was short, early teens, and had straight purple hair which went down to her shoulders, she was facing away from him, so he didn't see her face, but she was wearing a silver jacket… one of the hunters. He looked around for any others, none were out, probably hunting for more food, that rabbit would only do one person, or fox.

He didn't want to startle her, so he decided on the best way to announce his presence, "hi."

Immediately the hunter had turned, her bow out and an arrow notched, aimed at his head. Now that he had a good look at her face she had brown eyes, currently forming a scowl and pale skin. Under her jacket she wore baggy trousers and a T-shirt with the words 'hunters don't pass the buck' on it.

The fox sat down and raised his paws in surrender, "hey, umm, I'm here to make a delivery."

The girl stared at him, her mouth opened in shock, like she hadn't seen a talking fox before… wait a minute…

She put her bow away and smiled at him, "sorry… I didn't sense you coming." She smiled warmly. "Girls!" She called out, from the tents two girls came out, one had similar hair to the first, purple, but it was styled into a pineapple, maybe they were related, or they just shared hair dye, her eyes were brown too, more likely related. The final girl had black hair and red eyes, unlike the other two, she had her hair tied back in a ponytail. The two of them wore the same jacket's as the first girl but pineapple head was wearing a skirt and under-armour underneath, the one with black hair had a simple black T-shirt and jeans.

They all looked to the first girl and looked confused, she gestured to the fox and they gasped, the one who was attached to the pineapple grinned as she looked at the fox while the other just smiled softly.

"Hey, so I'm here to make a delivery," he put the box down in front of him and nudged it towards them, the girl with wacky purple hair smiled and came forward, but instead of grabbing the box, grabbed Whiskers, "w-what are you doing?" He asked, backing away, trying to hide the fear that was beginning to form in his mind.

The girl looked surprised before looking sullen and turning away, ignoring the box, before he could comment more another hunter walked into the clearing, she had copper skin and dark hair braided over her left shoulder, when her volcanic black eyes caught the fox she stifled a gasp, nearly dropping the rabbits in her hands.

"Thou art here." She exclaimed.

"Thou?" Whiskers asked.

She looked surprised, "thou doth not recognise me, thine traveling companion for years?" She sounded hurt.

"Umm, sorry to tell you this, but I haven't met you before." Whiskers said, "now, I'm here to make a delivery, Ares told me to deliver this box to some hunters, I assume you're expecting me?"

The hunters shared a look, before the copper skinned one sighed, "thou art not my companion." She then brightened, "but we hath been expecting your presence, milady informed us of thine coming."

"Great, so if you'll just take this." He pointed to the box, "I'll be on my way." The hunters were shocked.

"You aren't leaving." Pineapple said.

Whiskers backed away from them, "I'm sorry, it appears you have me mistaken for someone else, easy mistake to make, now, you just take whatever's in that box and I'll be on my way." The fox would have been away if not for the fact that he needed to make sure he didn't break the oath, he wasn't sure if leaving it here counted as delivery.

"No, you can't l-" Pineapple began but the dark haired one intervened.

"Anko," she sent her a look, "he doesn't know, we can't just threaten him to stay." She turned back to the fox, "alright, I'm sorry for all this, my name is Kurenai, this is Anko," Pineapple, "Yugao," purple hair, "and Zoe," the one with the rabbit.

"I'm Whiskers, now can you take this, so I can leave?"

"No, we need to talk to you, you don't know your importance." Kurenai said.

The fox looked nervous for a moment, he glanced at the box, "couldn't you just-"

"No," Kurenai said harshly, she winced at his expression, "sorry, we just need to talk, we'll take the box after, we promise."

"Right, umm, you're not going to eat me, are you?" They looked shocked.

"Why would we eat you?" Zoe asked.

"Well, you're hunters, I just sort of thought that well… I'd be tasty."

"Our lady would never allow it, why would she let us eat her own son?" Yugao asked.

"What?!" The fox asked, confusion and shock written all over his face.

"Yugao." Kurenai warned, before turning back to the fox, "yes, you are her son."

The fox gaped, his mind refusing to accept it, he had been afraid of hunters his whole life, why would their leader be his mother, it just wasn't possible. She was also a maiden goddess, and her reason for being a maiden was for hating men, so he couldn't be like Athena's kids, and he was a fox… that was not a line of thought he wanted to go down… but damn curiosity, first you kill the cat, now you're going to traumatise the fox, what next?

"Umm, so… quick question… actually several… first of all… what am I?"

They looked baffled at that, and glanced at each other, before Anko answered, "now I'm not the most observant, but I think you're a fox."

"Right, yes, that I gathered. I meant more on the lines of nature spirit, you know… species of godly offspring."

"Oh, sorry," they smiled at that, "right, well you're a demi-god." Anko said with a nod.

"Right, follow up question… how?" He asked with a tilt of the head.

"Umm, your mother is Artemis, she gave birth to you, your father was mortal…" Kurenai said.

"Right… I think we're missing a step here, see, I'm a fox, and most times when gods and animals… reproduce they-"

"No, no, no. Everything nope!" Anko said shaking her head and swiping her arms in front of her vigorously, she looked slightly green, as did the other girls.

"Your father was human." Yugao supplied.

"… I don't think you understand the problem I'm trying to get at here, I'm a fox…" Trying to show the missing link between demi-gods and foxes was.

"Oh, yeah… you turned yourself into a fox after she shot you." Anko said, pointing to Zoe.

"Thou art-" Zoe began.

"Wait, I was shot?!" He asked.

"Yeah, a few years ago, you turned into a fox to heal." Kurenai said.

"That makes no sense!" The fox said, "and why did you shoot me?!"

"Twas a mistake, I apologise dearly and milady hath punished my actions." Zoe said sincerely.

"Okay, right." The fox said nodding, "yeah… no, why did you shoot me."

"Thou cast a figure of a spectre at midnight, I called out to thou but twas not given a reply, so I struck." Zoe said.

The fox looked to Anko, "you looked creepy and were floating about the woods at midnight, she asked who you were you didn't answer, she assumed you were some freaky ghost or something and tried to shoot you… she succeeded."

"Okay… I don't really remember that, but if that happened I'm sorry I freaked you out to the point you decided to kill me."

"No, tis I who shalt apologise, thou art a victim of my misdeeds." Zoe said a bit confused as to why the fox would apologise.

"Okay… now what?" Whiskers asked.

"Right, well, we and the others will be looking for the other parts of you-"

"Wait, what?" The fox interrupted the red eyed woman.

She sighed, "from what we understand, when you were shot, you used something completely brand new, one of your old friends said they knew what it was. You managed to split yourself up into nine different parts, I don't know how though, you are one of them parts."

The fox was speechless, no one could blame him, he just found out he was only part of himself, a bigger self, that gives a strange reaction.

"The others have a few leads, but-"

"There are two of us at camp Half-blood!" The fox said quickly, now the others were speechless, "well… there were, one of us is… a tree… he was dying, but he helped Zeus's daughter and the two of them became the pine tree that keeps the camps borders going."

"…" The four of them were still speechless, before it was Zoe who spoke up, "doth art know thine names?"

"Parrot and Bandit, Parrot is with the daughter of Zeus and Bandit is in the care of a daughter of Ares." Whiskers said, not looking too pleased, "but there's something you should know about us. We hate each other. Without exception, we hate each other immediately."

"Why?" Anko asked, all of them were figuring out just how much more complicated this had become.

"Imagine someone who is you, not just looks like you, but smells like, sounds like and just is you in every way." They still looked confused, "okay, look, animals have stronger senses than humans, right?" They nodded, "well, when we get near each other, it's like a sixth sense, telling us to… well eat the other."

They were silent for a bit before Kurenai spoke, "that might be how you become one again."

Everyone looked at her shocked.

"Here me out, the original wouldn't leave it so he couldn't get back together right? Surely this isn't just some malfunction, there has to be a purpose for it. Maybe it just takes physically… biting - something foxes can do playfully – to start the process."

"Maybe, but I don't want to eat myself." The fox said, aghast.

"Right… look, we'll figure out how to get you back together soon, we just need to figure out where the others are." Yugao said.

"Fine." They were silent for a bit, before the fox spoke again, "so what's in the box anyway, I lugged it all the way here, any chance I get to see what's in it?"

"Sure!" Anko chimed, going for the box, but Yugao stopped her, her eyes becoming slits.

"The box is keeping you here." She said, "that's why you kept asking us to take it, once we take it, your job is done, you can leave." The fox gave nothing away, causing the girl to glare, "swear not to run away as soon as we take the box."

The fox looked down, "fine, I swear on the Styx not to leave as soon as you take the box."

Anko once again walked forward but was once again stopped, "no, do an oath that will actually make you stay."

He sighed again, she was too smart to dupe that easily, "I swear on the Styx to stay with these hunters until we reach camp Half-blood, fair enough?"

"Good." Yugao said, allowing a small smirk to appear on her face, she finally allowed Anko to open the box.

She gasped as soon as she saw what it was, inside was a sword, a very familiar sword to all except Zoe, the fox though couldn't explain his familiarity with the blade. In the box there was also a note: _Your journey will soon come to an end, be sure to give Naruto his blade back._

 **A/N: Okay, long chapter over, and a lot of plot has happened, the jinchuuriki and questers have split up for now, the hunters are with Whiskers and the jinchuuriki are in New Rome. I hope you like the idea of Temari being Praetor, in the original, Temari and Kankuro were social outcasts really, but I gave it some thought, and figured, hey if they've been there for so long, surely they'd have some respect. Also both of them were raised by their father to probably succeed him, I don't think Rasa wanted Garra to be Kage, so he was probably grooming Temari for the position. So that's why she reached Praetor, since she became the diplomat between the leaf and sand villages I assume she has some political** **competency** **too, so she would probably be very good at being** **Praetor** **too, I tried to show that she was good at shutting Octavian up, even though he's a kid, since in Son of Neptune, Renya said she had trouble with that side of running camp, and I'm trying to show that Temari can do it well enough.**

 **Also, the thing with Grover being scared of the jinchuuriki, I know it didn't really come across as much in this chapter because he hardly gets much screen time when he's with them, but that's because I'm trying to make him look like he's avoiding them, am I succeeding, probably not if I need to ask, but that's the intent. Also I did try to show his fear of them at the start when he seems almost as scared of them as he is the fates. I'm also trying to show through him that no one really knows anything about them other than the gods, all he knows is that they are strong and scary, and that they can** **apparently** **break some rules.**

 **Okay, I think that's it, review if you want, like too, if that's no bother, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.**


	16. Chapter 16

The quest continued, and, after proving celestial bronze doesn't work on the mortal gang that attacked, a stretch of time spent with Procrustes 'Crusty' the stretcher, ripping off the ferryman, some obedience training with Cerberus, Grover's shoes tried to drag the quest into the deepest darkest part of Hades and a surprisingly pleasant walk through Persephone's garden, they had reached the palace of Hades.

After making it into the palace proper, they were thoroughly freaked out by the Underworld security, not that it wasn't to be suspected. Every side doorway was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some wore Greek armour, some British redcoat uniforms, some camouflage with tattered American flags on the shoulders. They carried spears or muskets or M-16s. None of them bothered the questers, well except for freaking them out, they were like those creepy paintings that make it look like the eyes are watching, no matter where in the room you are. They walked forward, towards the big set of doors at the opposite end.

Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the doors. They grinned normally something not possible without lips, but it didn't stop them. They were armed of course, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests.

"You know," Grover mumbled, "I bet Hades doesn't have trouble with door-to-door salesmen."

Percy grunted and shifted his backpack, somehow it had seemed to be in his hand, even though they had abandoned it somewhere, maybe Ares was being nice and giving him a stalker bag. Regardless, though Percy didn't say anything, from his posture, it was clear that the bag was heavy, which was strange since all that was left in there were the empty Oreo packets.

"Well, guys," Percy said, breathing slightly deeper than normal, trying, and failing, to hide how tired he was. "I suppose we should... knock?"

A hot wind blew down the corridor like the hot breath of someone standing right behind you, and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside, if anything their grins widened.

"I guess that means entrez-vous," Annabeth said.

The room was sparsely decorated, bronze floors shone, shimmering in the torchlight like a pool of honey, the walls were black marble, much like the rest of the palace. The main attraction of the room of course, was the throne in it's centre made from bones fused together in a gothic architect's wet dream, beside was a throne in the shape of a flower, its petals opening to make a comfortable looking seat.

Of course, the sole occupant of the room was what drew the eyes of the questers. Hades sat comfortably on his throne, and he was scary. He was ten-foot-tall for one thing, making any who looked at him strain to look him in his dark maddening eyes, which contrasted with his albino white skin. His jet-black hair was shoulder length and held back by his golden crown, and he wore jet black silken robes. When he moved, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out.

"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."

Percy took a deep breath, silently praying that it wouldn't be his last and spoke. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."

Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, the shadowy ghosts in his robes wailed silently, begging the son of Poseidon to shut up, making Hades mad was a bad idea.

"Only two requests?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet."

Percy gulped and glanced to the throne next to the lord of the dead, maybe if Persephone was around she could calm him, not that it would help much, she was probably just as likely to get annoyed at the cheeky son of Poseidon.

Annabeth cleared her throat and prodded Percy in the back, silently pleading him to shut up and let her do the talking or try and not say anything stupid. He ignored her.

"Lord Hades," Percy said. "Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be... bad."

"Really bad," Grover added helpfully.

"Return Zeus's master bolt to me," he said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."

Hades' eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretence, after what you have done?"

The questers glanced around them, giving each other confused looks, they had no idea what he was talking about, but Annabeth's mind was whirling, trying to find out.

"Um... Uncle," Percy said. "You keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"

The throne room was rocked with an earthquake that probably made it all the way up to L.A. Debris fell from as the doors burst open all along the walls, and a skeletal army marched in, hundreds of undead, or really dead more likely, from every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits, it was beginning to feel like an evil dead movie but with more realistic and, quite frankly, creepier effects.

Hades bellowed, anger pretty much flowing off him, "Do you think I want war, godling?"

"You are the Lord of the Dead," Percy said as carefully as his mind would let him. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"

"A typical thing for my brothers to say! Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of the Asphodel Fields?"

"Well..."

"Have you any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?"

Percy opened his mouth to respond, but Hades was on a roll, it seems Percy had metaphorically, for now, opened Pandora's box, and let loose all the problems Hades had dealt with over the years.

"More security ghouls," he moaned. "Traffic problems at the judgment pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"

"Charon wants a pay raise," the son of the sea blurted, remembering how the ferryman had asked him to say about it. Annabeth and Grover were contemplating buying a sewing kit and physically sewing Percy's mouth shut.

"Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."

"But you took Zeus's master bolt."

"Lies!" More rumbling. Hades rose from his throne, glaring down on them like they were really annoying ants. "Your father may fool Zeus, boy, but I am not so stupid. I see his plan."

"His plan?"

"You were the thief on the winter solstice," he said. "Your father thought to keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus, You, took the master bolt and my helm. Had I not sent my Fury to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon might have succeeded in hiding his scheme to start a war." He stopped his rant and glared even harder.

Grover made a sound between a bleat and a squeak.

"He has even tried to turn my own son against me and broke our arrangement! This is inexcusable." Hades yelled.

"Umm… what agreement, Lord Hades?" Annabeth asked, visibly fighting to keep her voice from stuttering.

"Hmm," he grunted, "child of Athena," he muttered, "I'm referring to the arrangement we had over your traveling companions." They had confused looks on their faces as they stared up at him, "of course he didn't even admit what he's done for you. They were never meant to be involved in any quest!" He yelled, "we have been in agreement, that no matter what, even if there was war between us, to keep them out of it! But my brother can't have that. Sending them to watch you, to keep me from attacking you after my Fury left, not that I would without knowing where it is."

"Where-" But Annabeth was interrupted.

"As if that wasn't enough, none of the other gods seemed to realise!" He yelled, "as if it wasn't bad enough that he fully broke the deal! To try and get them to all side with him! No!" He slammed his hand down on the arm of his throne, "he would turn my own son against me! I would not have it! So, I had to keep my son away from you, from your lies and propaganda!"

"You lied to him, about knowing what he was looking for?" Percy asked incredulously.

"No! Unlike the other gods, I will not lie to my children like that." He glared at Percy, as if wondering which would be the most painful death for him, "but you knew that, bringing them into this, probably told them all about your so-called quest?! Hmm?"

"No, we-"

"But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's thief, and I will have my helm back!"

"But..." Annabeth spoke. Her mind was going a million miles an hour. "Lord Hades, your helm of darkness is missing, too?"

"Do not play innocent with me, girl. You and the satyr have been helping this hero, coming here to threaten me in Poseidon's name, no doubt-to bring me an ultimatum. Does Poseidon think I can be blackmailed into supporting him?"

"No!" Percy said. "Poseidon didn't-I didn't-"

"I have said nothing of the helm's disappearance," Hades snarled, "because I had no illusions that anyone on Olympus would offer me the slightest justice, the slightest help. I can ill afford for word to get out that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So, I searched for you myself, and when it was clear you were coming to me to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."

"You didn't try to stop us? But-"

"Return my helm now, or I will stop death," Hades threatened. "That is my counterproposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour back into the world. I will make your lands a nightmare. And you, Percy Jackson-your skeleton will lead my army out of Hades."

The skeletons all marched forward once, looking ready to back up their master's threat, it was quite the scary scene to watch, Grover and Annabeth were both scarred, but Percy wasn't. Instead, he just got pissed, maybe a bit childishly too, if his next words were to go by.

"You're as bad as Zeus," Percy growled. "You think I stole from you? That's why you sent the Furies after me?"

"Of course," Hades said, not denying it at all, the fact that he has already mentioned that seeming to fly over Percy's head.

"And the other monsters?"

Hades curled his lip, like he was disgusted at the accusation. "I had nothing to do with them. I wanted no quick death for you. I wanted you brought before me alive, so you might face every torture in the Fields of Punishment. Why do you think I let you enter my kingdom so easily?"

"Easily?"

"Return my property!"

"But I don't have your helm. I came for the master bolt."

"Which you already possess!" Hades shouted. "You came here with it, little fool, thinking you could you threaten me!"

"But I didn't!"

"Open your pack, then."

Percy dropped his bag to the floor, the noise it made was more than a few empty packs of Oreo's should have made, he unzipped it with slightly shaky hands. Inside was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.

"Percy," Annabeth said, her eyes going from shocked to betrayal in an instant, Grover was speechless, but Annabeth couldn't accept that he could betray them like this. "How-"

"I-I don't know. I don't understand."

"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool. And now... my helm. Where is it?"

Percy was silent, shock and horror going through his eyes before he came to an epiphany.

"Lord Hades, wait," he said, desperately. "This is all a mistake."

"A mistake?" Hades roared.

The skeletons took aim, looking like the worlds biggest firing squad about to take out the demi-gods. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and then two of Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's throne.

"There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come-I know the real reason you brought the bolt. You came to bargain for her."

Golden fire enveloped Hades hand, it flew down to the foot of his throne, right in front of Percy. It exploded, and there was Sally Jackson, frozen in a shower of gold, just as she was at the moment when the Minotaur began to squeeze her to death.

Percy gulped, tears began to form in his eyes and he couldn't speak. He reached out to touch her, but was forced to recoil as the light was as hot as a bonfire.

"Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Return my helm, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."

Percy clutched at his slightly burnt hand, holding back the flood of tears, even Annabeth looked saddened at who she currently believed was a traitor, until she seemed to realise who they got the bag off. Grover whimpered slightly trying not to interrupt the current conversation.

"Ah, the pearls," Hades said. "Yes, my brother and his little tricks. Bring them forth, Percy Jackson."

Percy moved his hand to his pockets and brought out the pearls.

"Only three," Hades said. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."

"We were tricked," Percy told his grim-faced quest mates. "Set up."

"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "And the voice in the pit-"

"I don't know yet," Percy said. "But I intend to ask."

"Decide, boy!" Hades yelled.

"Percy." Grover put his hand on my shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt,"

"I know that."

"Leave me here," he said. "Use the third pearl on your mom."

"No!"

"I'm a satyr," Grover said, he blinked and then gulped. "We don't have souls like humans do. He can torture me until I die, but he won't get me forever. I'll just be reincarnated as a flower or something. It's the best way."

"No." Annabeth drew her bronze knife. "You two go on. Grover, you have to protect Percy. You have to get your searcher's license and start your quest for Pan. Get his mom out of here. I'll cover you. I plan to go down fighting." Her eyes burned with determination, no fear on her face as she prepared to die, she was trying to make it up to Percy, even if he didn't realise. She had doubted him, but had realised she was wrong, she would right that, for, even as brief as it had been, she had mistrusted Percy like that, and he would have never doubted her.

"No way," Grover said. "I'm staying behind."

"Think again, goat boy," Annabeth said.

"Stop it, both of you!" Percy took a deep breath, he looked at Grover, his best friend, and Annabeth, a girl he had only met recently, but would now trust with his life. "I know what to do. Take these."

He handed them each a pearl, they looked at them, then Annabeth's eyes widened, guessing that he would send them with his mother, sacrificing himself.

"But, Percy..." Annabeth began but Percy ignored her.

He turned and faced his mother, pain tore him as he realised this might be the last time he desperately wanted to sacrifice himself and use the last pearl on her, but his eyes hardened. He remembered the last of the prophecy, what he hadn't told the others.

"I'm sorry," he told her, barely keeping the tears at bay. "I'll be back. I'll find a way."

The smug look on Hades' face faded, he was slowly realising what a mistake it was to allow them to use the pearls, they may now get away. He had believed his nephew to be too soft to do his apparent choice, "Godling...?"

"I'll find your helm, Uncle," he swore. "I'll return it. Remember about Charon's pay raise."

"Do not defy me-"

"And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls."

"Percy Jackson, you will not-"

But Percy ignored the god, he turned to his friends, "Now, guys!"

They smashed the pearls with their heels, or hooves in Grover's case, and, for a scary moment, nothing happened.

Hades yelled, "Destroy them!" The army of darkness rushed forward, swords out, guns clicking to full automatic. The Furies lunged, their whips bursting into flame.

Just as the skeletons opened fire, the pearl fragments exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind. The three of them were encased in a milky white sphere, which was starting to float off the ground, questers included.

As they started to rise, spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the pearl bubbles, even the fiery whips of the furies did nothing to the spheres. Hades yelled with such rage, the entire fortress shook, L.A. probably wasn't the safest place to be at the moment.

"Look up.'" Grover yelled. "We're going to crash!"

As predicted, the stalactites were rushing forward, an army of spears about to burst their bubble, quiet literally.

"How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted over the sound of the world around them shaking.

"I don't think you do!" Percy shouted back, probably not the best thing to say as they hurtled towards the ceiling at Mach seven, no matter how true.

They screamed in sync and continued to do so, long after everything went dark, there was darkness for a while and then Percy seemed to realise something, this was the same feeling he had on Yagura's ship. He stopped screaming when bubbles appeared in his vision, Grover didn't get the memo though, probably because he had his hands over his eyes protectively.

Annabeth and Percy looked around the sea floor, neither catching much in the blur of movement that hurtled them straight to the surface, in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay, knocking a surfer off his board with an indignant, "Dude!"

Percy grabbed Grover and hauled him over to a life buoy, he caught Annabeth and dragged her over too. A curious shark was circling them, a great white about eleven feet long. Annabeth nearly had a stroke but Grover was simply already too terrified.

Percy wasn't in a good mood when he said, "Beat it."

The shark turned and raced away.

The surfer screamed something about bad mushrooms and paddled away as fast as he could.

In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, plumes of smoke rising from neighbourhoods all over the city. It looks like their business in the Underworld had impacted the city in a bad way. Speaking of, the god was probably sending an army of the dead after them right now.

Not that that was their biggest issue at the moment, for now they had to worry about the god who had tricked them, and then getting back to Olympus, and then, getting Whiskers back.

(With Utakata)

The son Hades had not enjoyed his trip, the seats were okay at best, but definitely not good for sleeping in, even if he could with the Fury sitting beside him driving. They had one pitstop and the traffic was horrible. Also, the Fury had horrible taste in music, but the child of Hades did not complain, after the first day, their trip didn't get any better. Apparently, the Fury wasn't too happy with sleeping in a motel, but didn't say anything, just had a look of constant anger on her face.

They hadn't spoken other than a few pleasantries, and he had been really annoyed when B showed him what they were missing. At least he let him in the link to watch 'life of Brian' when B let him watch through his eyes, an act they had used sparingly throughout the years, mostly just because they had no need of it.

So, when they finally stopped on the second day, Utakata felt slightly anxious, he was going to meet his brother and sister for the first time now. Would they be happy? Annoyed? Scared? How was he supposed to know?

The rough voice of Alecto broke him from his thoughts, "go into the casino, room 1942, if they're not there, wait for them, they will show up." She handed him some papers, the signature at the bottom read A. Fury, beneath that was a signature that was harder to read, but looked like, H. Di Angelo. He looked back to the Fury who stared at him for a moment, "now, I'm not sure if you're aware yet, but they do not yet know of our world, keep it that way as long as possible." She then handed him some more papers, "this is the address of your new home, food will be supplied, but you must understand that you will need to move. My lord will keep the three of you moving to ensure that you are not caught."

"I understand." He moved to get out, but she stopped him once more.

"Be careful as well, I know you are used to using the domain of Poseidon," she growled, "and at the moment are far from prepared to fight monsters." He wanted to interrupt but she continues, "which is why my lord has a stash of weapons in this first house. Make sure they don't find it, and bring it with you on your journey. There are some weapons for them too, for when they find out about their heritage, but only then."

"Thank you." Utakata said, he then left the car, "you've done a great job, if my father doesn't know, tell him I said that."

She snorted and closed the door before driving off, straight into the wall in front of her, disappearing into the shadows, car and all. The demi-god looked mildly surprised, but simply brushed it off and turned to the Casino.

At the door was a man dressed appropriately, suit and all, he glanced to the shadow that the car had driven into and gulped slightly before smiling at the son of Hades, though it was a bit uneasy.

"Welcome," he said, gesturing for him to come in, "you must be sweltered in that heat, come in and take a break."

The demi-god did so, walking calmly into the lobby and glancing around at most people's paradise, the lobby was a huge game room. There was an indoor waterslide wrapped around what could be only described as Willy Wonka's great glass elevator, going up more floors than the casino could possible have from the outside. A climbing wall made up one wall, not just the bottom part, the whole wall, stretching up to the roof was a climbing wall, at it's peak was a platform that people were bungee jumping off. There were virtual reality suits running games of laser tag, hundreds of video games being played on widescreen TV's and a cinema playing a black and white movie. Anything you could think of was there, it was Elysium.

A bellhop walked over to Utakata and spoke, "hey, welcome to the Lotus hotel and casino, here-" but the demi-god cut him off.

"Sorry, I'm not here to stay, I'm just here to pick up my little brother and sister."

The bellhop tried to say something but was promptly ignored as the son of Hades walked over to the elevator. He hit the button labelled 194 and hoped that they were numbered correctly, sure enough, when it stopped, he came to a door labelled '1940' and made his way past it. This is where he came to his first problem, '1940-A'.

"Damn it." He cursed, he could be here all day at this rate. He sighed and walked through the corridor, passing all of them, apparently the nineteen forties were a big year for the casino. When he finally reached the door number he wanted he was saved the search through twenty odd doors on his search for his siblings, by a simpler number, two.

He glanced between '1942' and '1942-A' in confusion, and hoped that it would be that easy, and the Fury wasn't pulling some prank on him. He knocked lightly on the door and waited for a response, there was some shuffling behind the door and he knew there was someone on the other side of the door, peeking at him through the peephole.

"Who is it?" A girl's voice called out, she sounded young, hopefully she was his sister.

"Hello, I'm looking for Bianca and Nico di Angelo." He said loud enough for her to hear from behind the door.

There was more shuffling and murmuring, he couldn't make out what was being said, but the girl sounded worried, while the other voice sounded excited.

"Umm…" the girl said again, "why are you looking for us – them?" she said, he could practically hear her covering her mouth at the slip up.

"So, you're Bianca?" He asked, he heard sniggering and a voice saying what sounded like 'shut up'.

"Y-yes." Bianca said.

"I'm not here to hurt you," Utakata said, "in fact I'm here to help." He looked at the first sheets of papers, "I was sent here by a Miss… A. Fury?" He said, "I believe she is your lawyer, she brought you here?"

"Umm… yes." Bianca said.

"Good, well, umm, it says here she went to search for your next of kin after…" He read next few lines of the page to himself:

 _"…_ _mother died in horrible fire caused by freak lightning strike…"_

"… Well, after she brought you here, she went out looking for the next of kin, umm, would it be alright if I come in? It's important."

More murmurs, there was silence for a minute before the tell-tale sound of a lock opening came from the other side of the door, and it swung open slowly. Behind it was a young girl with dark hair, she had a beige sun-dress that looked like it would fit well in the nineteen forties, which it probably was from. She had a brown cardigan over it and was shifting about uncomfortably, she looked at her feet, not meeting his gaze. Her hair was covering most of her face, as she was looking down slightly.

"… Come in." She said quietly, moving aside to let him in.

He did just that and walked into the room, it was pretty big and had two beds right beside each other, the scrapes in the woodwork indicated this was a recent feature. From here he could see the balcony leading out to see the beautiful view of the Vegas strip, neon glowed in the dark of the night, something that hadn't been there when he entered the hotel.

There was what looked like a makeshift cage around a pile of stuff in one corner of the room, in the pile was a toy gun, a phone with room service written on one of the buttons and a skeet shooting machine. On the side of the cage, which looked like one of the ones you use to stop toddlers from going down the stairs, on it, hanging by some string, was a sign that said, 'things Nico and Volpe aren't allowed to touch'. There was a door that looked like it went to an on suite, but it was closed over, all in all it was a pretty fancy room.

"Umm… you can sit down on the bed." Bianca said bashfully, waiting for him to move before taking a seat herself.

"Thank you." He said, she sat down with a pretty big gap in between them, still refusing to look at him, he hadn't noticed her brother, he was probably in the bathroom.

"Y-you were saying something about the next of kin." Bianca said, interrupting his musings.

"Yes, well," he showed some of the papers to Bianca, she looked at them but seemed to be struggling, "it basically says that your father asked that you be sent to your next of kin, Miss Fury after learning that your father isn't…. among the living, tracked down the next relative."

She looked up at him and he finally managed to see her eyes, they were just like Hades own, dark black and full of so much that you couldn't see at a glance. He smiled at her, trying to find a way to say what he had to say now.

"She did. She found your brother, well, half-brother. She found him and had him agree to take you in to live with him." She was shocked, her eyes wide with surprise, and something else… hope.

"Where is he?" She all but yelled, then put a hand over her mouth.

"It's alright," he said with a slight grin, "she drove him here herself, brought him all the way to the hotel and gave him the papers." A look of realisation appeared on her face, "and he went up and knocked on their door."

"You… you're my brother?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," he replied, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "yeah, so… umm, I was sent here to look after you and Nico… so… umm."

He smiled at her, awkwardly and she just stared at him in awe, before a smile graced her face, "you're my brother," she said again as if she couldn't believe it.

"Yeah… oh, my name is Utakata," he said, "sorry, I didn't tell you my name before."

"Right, Utakata, it sounds… nice." She said, before immediately hiding her face in her hands, "sorry, I don't mean to be rude or anything, I just…"

"I know how you feel, I didn't really believe it at first either, I mean, I have a little brother and sister now, I just… I mean, wow."

"Yeah." Bianca agreed, "oh, Nico, he's, well my brother."

"I know."

"Yeah, so you do, umm, I told him to go in the bathroom and lock the door, sorry, I was just…"

"Oh," Utakata chuckled slightly, "you thought I was some weirdo here to kidnap you or something?"

She blushed brightly and looked down at her feet, "… sorry." She mumbled, "I just panicked and-"

"It's okay, I'd probably do the same thing if there was someone I never met at the door acting like me." Utakata said with a chuckle, "so, do you want to go get him, then?"

"Oh, yeah." She went over to the door and knocked it three times in quick succession, and then shouted out, "Nico come out, it's okay!"

There was silence for a moment before a voice shouted back. "That's what a kidnapper would force you to say."

"Nico, open this door this second." Bianca said.

"But what if-"

"Nico." She said it calmly but there was an undertone that dared him to go against her, in fact it sounded very much like Hades voice.

The door clicked and swung open, a boy about ten years old emerged holding something green to his chest, "we're not being kidnapped?"

"No, you're not." Utakata said, bringing the boys attention to him, he looked similar to his sister, same skin tone, same eyes and the same hair, but Nico's was a bit messier, like he hadn't brushed it in a while.

"Nico, this is Utakata." Bianca said, "he's… well he's our half-brother, Miss Fury sent him to get us." She said, staring at Nico to gauge his reaction.

"O-our brother?" He asked in surprise.

"Yes, he said he'll be able to take care of us." Bianca said, sounding almost wishful.

"R-really?" Nico asked before a grin made it to his face and he made his way over to the bigger boy, "you'll take care of us?"

"Yes… as long as you two are happy with this, there's a house for the three of us already set up." Utakata said, "so if you want to come, well… start packing." He said with a grin.

Bianca smiled, and Nico had a grin brighter than the sun at that news, Utakata smiled at the sight, instantly reminded of Naruto. His grin shrunk a bit, but he didn't give away the sadness to the children.

Suddenly Nico turned to Bianca. "Che dire de Volpe?" The jinchuuriki recognised the language slightly, it sounded slightly familiar, but he couldn't understand it.

Bianca looked slightly confused before she looked slightly nervous, she glanced at her older brother, "non so lo." She looked to the green thing in Nico's hand and gently pried his fingers apart, it revealed a floppy green hat, which moved on its own slightly, Utakata was now a bit wary.

"Umm," Bianca said, "what do you think about foxes?"

"I love foxes," Utakata replied, he had a feeling where this was going.

Both children brightened instantly, "great, umm…. We have a friend, and we can't leave him here, is it alright if-"

"Of course," Utakata smiled, "could I meet him?"

Bianca placed the hat on the bed top down, and opened up the sides, revealing a small ball of silver fluff, that moved slightly. In the cap, asleep, was Naruto, as a baby fox, the jinchuuriki quickly scanned for chakra signatures and sure enough found the fox positively glowing with the stuff.

Possibly just timing, or perhaps he could sense chakra, the fox woke up, bright blue eyes stared up at this new person with confusion, but looked at Bianca, who seemed happy enough with this new person.

"Where did you find him?" Utakata asked.

"He just appeared on the balcony one day, he didn't have a home, so we gave him one." Bianca replied.

"That's odd."

"Yeah, but he's very nice." Bianca smiled at the fox.

"I'm sure," Utakata said, trying not to show how happy he was to have finally found at least an aspect of his brother, but in his eyes, happiness dance like no one was watching. "Well, I don't mean to rush you," he glanced outside, seeing that somehow it was morning, "but could you two get started with your packing."

(New Rome)

New Rome was beautiful, all the jinchuuriki were enjoying themselves, Hana had managed to find a forge, where she started working on a 'secret project', while Yagura and Roshi had found the baths. They were great. Yugito, Fu and B had been exploring the barracks randomly, searching for anything interesting. They found it in the form of the armless legless statue shouting at three people in the legion, they didn't particularly care what position they were in. The statue told one of the boys to move several pebbles on the road a few centimetres before complaining again when the boy didn't understand the metric system.

"Fine, move it one inch to the left." The statue said, nodding when the boy did so, "good, now you," one boy pointed to himself, "no, not you, the one I'm pointing too." The final boy pointed to himself, "yes, now you remember to cut your hair to regulation length, I'd expect better from a centurion."

"Yes sir." The boy said, saluting the statue.

"Alright then, go on in."

The jinchuuriki left before the clearly OCD statue caught sight of them and had them move the scenery. They were still walking around, aimlessly, talking in Japanese to one another, none really knowing what to do. They made their way back to the barracks, maybe there'd be something interesting to do there, not much really, aside from the ghosts wondering about and the kids looking at them in confusion.

That is, until they saw something they had never seen before. It was grey and had a strange nose, it looked almost like a hose or a snake, there were small tusks growing beneath it's mouth and it was roughly the size of a car. The three of them stared at it in awe.

"What is that?" Fu asked, her tone betraying her surprise.

"Hmm?" A random passer by said, he was a short kid, about nine or ten, he looked slightly familiar, and they vaguely recalled seeing him on the way to the augur. He was blonde and surprisingly well built for a kid, he had a scar on his lip, not particularly big at all but it was noticeable, he also had a tattoo on his arm like all the other campers here, an eagle with a barcode beside it.

"What is that?" Yugito asked, repeating her sister's question to the now involved boy, the fact that he was the only one around being the main reason.

"Hannibal, our elephant." The kid said, like it was obvious.

"What's an elephant?" Fu asked, her voice still in awe.

"You don't know what an elephant is?"

"No, hence the question 'what's and elephant?'" Fu said with a deadpan.

"Well… that's an elephant." The kid said, "it doesn't get much easier than that."

"Fair enough, is it a monster, or what?" Yugito asked.

"A monster? No, he's an animal." The kid gave them strange looks, "you were the ones going up temple hill with Tem – our Praetor."

"Yeah, went to meet the augur, wasn't very impressed, couldn't find anything on us." Fu said, "but I got a strange vibe from him, kind of like dad, but much weaker."

"Who's your dad?"

"Apollo, I think Temari said something about him being a legacy of dad's, so I assume I was just feeling that." Fu said.

"Oh," he then seemed to realise something, "sorry, I haven't introduced myself, I'm Jason Grace, son of Jupiter." He looked away like he was expecting them to react with complete shock and apologise for not bowing before them or something like that.

Instead, all he got was B, "that's good to here, yo, nice to meet you little bro." He grinned widely at him.

"W-wait you're a son of Jupiter?!" He asked in shock, "b-but-"

"Yeah, I didn't think I'd have any little bro's; running about camp, are there any more of us, yo?" Yugito swatted B on the side of the head.

"Speak normally, you're freaking him out." She then turned to the kid and smiled widely, he looked a little flustered as he met her eyes, "hi, I'm Yugito, daughter of Venus."

"N-nice to meet you." He then turned back to B, his brow creasing, "when were you claimed?"

"Claimed?" B asked, a look from Yugito stopped him from rapping again.

"Yeah, when did Jupiter claim you as his son?"

"Oh, umm…" he thought back to it, "a while ago, now so-" he got swatted again, "but it was probably a few years now."

"Right…" They lapsed into silence again, before Jason looked down the road where they saw a few kids making their way to out of here, "oh, we're assembling the legion now, I need to get changed really quick, I'll talk to you later, sorry."

He ran off and the three of them were left watching his shrinking form disappear into the throng of people making their way in the same direction. They stayed there for a bit before they felt what was similar to being poked in the brain, someone in the mindscape wanted to talk, they ventured in and found Garra looking at them, Roshi, Hana and Yagura were there too.

"Hey, make your way to the Praetor building, my sister needs to introduce you to the legion." Garra said, "then I think they're having a game of something, probably training, it'll be interesting to watch."

"Then dinner?" Fu asked rubbing her stomach as it grumbled.

"Then dinner." Garra agreed.

"How'd your talk go?" Yagura asked.

"Good, they've been doing well, they're still mad I didn't visit but they have some interesting stories about the legion."

"Yeah, hey, have you lot seen an elephant before?" Fu asked.

"No, what's that." Roshi asked.

"Umm, well it's a big… here." She transformed into one, and the others looked amazed, "yeah, the legion has one-"

"Sorry to rush you, but the legion is coming together, you need to hurry." Garra said.

"Right sorry," they all disappeared from the mindscape, snapping back to reality and following his instructions.

Garra himself opened his eyes to the sight of his brother and sister staring at him oddly, "they're on their way." He said.

"You were only like that like fifteen seconds." Kankuro said in surprise.

"Time is weird there, I don't know how it works, but the brain can work faster without the body weighing it down."

"Right then, how long will we need to wait?" The eldest son of Juno asked, but as he said it Hana appeared around the corner.

"Hey." She greeted quietly.

"Hey." Garra greeted as well. They were silent for a moment before Roshi and Yagura appeared, a few minutes later the others finally arrived as well.

"Hey, yo, I got a lil' bro!" B said with a grin.

Temari smiled slightly, "that, would be Jason, he's a good kid, even though he's a son of Jupiter, Juno claimed him as her champion. He's spent a lot of time with us because of that, in fact I think he would be a great Praetor if Kankuro doesn't make it." She said in a slightly teasing tone directed at her brother.

He grinned, "like that little pip-squeak would be better at it than me, besides, I'm going to win. Maybe when you get too old and have to retire." He grinned at his now scowling sister.

"Is there not two Praetors?" Roshi asked looking slightly confused.

Temari grimaced, "there was, about two weeks ago our other Praetor died, so we are having an election soon."

"Oh, right, sorry." Roshi said.

"It's fine, you didn't know. We weren't that close anyway." She said, she then turned around and began to walk off, "come on, we don't want you lot being late on your first day."

As they walked off, Roshi glanced at Fu who creased her eyebrows and mouthed, 'first day' to him with a confused look. He shrugged back in response, assuming she meant their first day seeing camp Jupiter, it would suck to be late to something now.

They all sat and waited for the legion to assemble, and as it did, they were very impressed. They had seen armies before, back in their home world, Roshi had probably seen the most, he had been through more wars than the rest of them. They may have been bigger than the legion, but this army of demi-gods were much more intimidating, there were easily three hundred of them, all wearing armour and hoisting huge shields around. Spears were in their hands, playing peek-a-boo behind the shields with only the tips sticking out, and swords glinted at the sides of each soldier. All of their equipment was in pristine condition, sparkling in the sun light.

They were split into five groups, the first four stood in front of each of their barracks, while the fifth was tucked away in the corner. Kankuro had disappeared into one of the crowds of people, and they lost track of him. Temari stood in front of them though, her cape billowed, and she stared at the legion with a calculating grin, a few guards made there way over to her and stood beside her, forcing the jinchuuriki to shuffle to the side.

After all the kids fell in, the ghosts joined the throng, they all appeared halfway through people, making them shift about. Centurion's sorted them out and moved them until before them stood an army of roughly three hundred teenaged kids, bulked out by the huge horde of ghosts.

They heard a few centurions doing role call but ignored it for the most part, the names not really interesting them. Finally, a kid at the head of the first cohort stepped forward and yelled, 'colours!'

Several kids moved forward, carrying standards with poles showing off each cohort's emblem, they all wore lion skin pelts and seemed proud of themselves, except the last one. He blushed as he carried a long pole with nothing on it, embarrassment was clear in the eyes of any who gazed on what was, in essence, a big stick.

They were all silent for a moment before Temari stood forward, she cut a commanding pose, standing in front off several hundred armed and trained kids. Yet she showed nothing as she glanced between the five cohorts, her face expressionless.

"Romans!" She said, her voice, not yelling, but carried over the crowd like she had a mic, "today is a grand day for the legion. Today seven new demi-gods have arrived at the camp." She turned and the jinchuuriki received surprised looks from nearly a thousand eyes. "They are strong." She said, "and five have been claimed already, though two are still unknown. Yagura and Roshi." She sent pointed glances to Roshi and Yagura. "Yugito, daughter of Venus." Yugito waved at the legion and several boys blushed, as did several girls, they tried to hide their red faces behind their helmets.

"Fu, daughter of Apollo." Fu stepped forward and grinned at the legion, the sun seemed to get brighter when she did so. "Hana, daughter of Vulcan." Hana moved forward and glanced behind her hat, she stood an imposing figure next to Fu and Yugito, she didn't seem to care when people started to stare. "B, son of Jupiter." B stepped forward and the legion murmured amongst themselves, shock radiating from most of them, he stepped forward and grinned at them. "And finally, Garra, my full brother, son of Juno." She said, stepping to the side to bring Garra forward, he stared out at the legion, and the murmurs increased to full blown whispers.

Temari waited for them to calm down before speaking again, when they didn't calm down alone, she shut them up, "enough. They have visited the augur, but through divine intervention from Juno, the augur was unable to see." More murmurs among the Romans, several looked at Octavian who looked like he would rather be anywhere else, but Temari kept going, they shut up at her voice, "Juno herself blessed Garra and claimed the godly parents of each of them held a blessing for all of them. Their very rival has quelled Jupiter's rage." She said, "you must have all noticed the storms have stopped since their arrival."

The jinchuuriki shared a look and had a collective mental shrug, they had no idea what storms they were referring to, but Garra seemed to have an idea, he quickly entered the mindscape and said to them that the weather was bad when he and Utakata were alone. Only Yagura figured that this was probably about the missing bolt, it seemed the camp wasn't aware, but the Greek's were, if the quest went well, they wouldn't even need to worry about it, as it was currently being solved as they spoke. She didn't mention any of this though, Percy kept out of their business, she would keep them out of his.

"They have letters of recommendation from myself and my brother." She held out some letters that looked hastily written, "both me and my brother have seen first-hand some of their strength, but even we haven't seen all of their true strength. They are truly some of the strongest demi-gods either of us have ever seen and are true Romans." Temari motioned for several people to come forward, five of the most senior members of each cohort came and inspected the letters she handed to them.

The jinchuuriki shuffled along nervously, there was something they collectively weren't getting, and it was infuriating. They glanced between each other, wondering why Temari was… showing them off for lack of a better phrase. The five centurions looked at the seven of them in surprise as they finished reading the letters.

"They wish to join the legion, who will stand for them." It then hit them like a ton of bricks, it was like the world had gone silent, they all shared a collective look with each other, each saying the same thing, 'oh shit'.

They turned back to Temari looking like a herd of deer caught in the headlights of a truck. She continued on speaking to the Romans, but they weren't listening any more, they entered the mindscape quickly and in sync.

"What the hell?!" Fu yelled looking at Garra, "we ain't joining an army!"

"I know, I didn't know she would do this!" Garra yelled.

"Sort it out then." Yagura yelled.

"How?" Garra asked looking between them, looking for a plan that wasn't there.

"Just tell her." Fu said.

"Now? In front of the legion?"

"Yeah, we don't have much of a choice, better to get it over with." Fu said.

"But I-"

"Speak Japanese quietly, none of these lot speak our language." Hana said.

"I-"

"Explain it to her do it quickly, this is just a pit stop for us, we're here to find Naruto and for you to visit your siblings." Yagura said.

"I know." Garra said, "this is going to be really awkward."

They left the mindscape, only a few seconds had passed, Temari was still talking and the five centurions were still seemingly evaluating them. Garra moved forward, aware of the eyes watching him, he tapped his sister on the shoulder causing her to stop, the glare he got for interrupting her was going to be a grin compared to the one he would get for what he was going to say.

"We're not here to join the legion." He whispered in his home tongue, she froze and looked at him like he spat in her face.

"What do you mean," she hissed quietly, in the same language.

"We are only here to look for Naruto and visit you and Kankuro." He said, even he winced at the glare.

She stared at him the glare intensifying the longer it lasted, "no." She said simple, "I am not dealing with any bullshit, you are staying. You may leave to go on a quest after you have stayed for some time, and I will let you search for Naruto, but you are staying here for the time being."

"This is non-negotiable, I'm sorry but we have to leave, we were only going to-"

"I am not giving you a choice, as Praetor I am saying you are joining the legion."

"I don't care if you are Praetor, we are finding Naruto, this is something that needs to be done, the longer we wait, the more chance there is that we won't find him."

The legion had been watching this with confusion, none of them could understand and those that spoke Japanese were too far away to make out what was being said. They could clearly tell that they were annoyed at each other and could tell it wasn't going to end well.

"Garra." Temari said, "I am your sister, I am not arguing with you on this, now back down."

"Temari, I will be leaving with my siblings, I'm sorry to have to do this, but I need to go."

"Garra-" A bright light interrupted the conversation and the Romans all bowed at the tell-tale sign that a god had appeared, or rather, a goddess. Juno towered over the Roman legion, her eyes hard as she watched all of them bow to her, the jinchuuriki looked at one another before following the others lead and bowing stiffly to her.

"Rise, my children." Juno said, both Garra and Temari stood, in the background, Kankuro moved to stand but went back down when he realised she wasn't talking to him, a blush on his face.

"Lady Juno." Temari said, it came off slightly hasty, but she was in front of the legion and her mother, she needed to act professional.

"Praetor," Juno reciprocated, a playful smile coming to her face, "I am here to settle your argument, I understand your confusion at this situation, but these children will not be fully join the legion for now." There was silence before some of the legion started whispering, Juno frowned, "they have been given a… test from the gods, because of this, they need to be separate from the legion, until the quest is done."

Temari looked like she was going to argue, but stopped her outburst, and calmly spoke, "my lady-"

"But," Juno interrupted, a wide grin on her face, "this quest may lead them back to the legion, so they will need to stay in contact, an envoy would be the best choice for this." She turned to Garra, who seemed to understand, "since you have access to communications between the others, it would make sense to have one of you stay here." Garra looked accepting of this, it did make a lot of sense, chances were, that one part of Naruto would make his way here at some point, one of them should stay and wait, when it happened they would know. This was similar to what had happened with Utakata and Hades.

"Mot – Lady Juno, I accept this position." Garra said.

The jinchuuriki looked ready to stop him but he quickly mind-scaped them a message saying to wait.

"Good," Juno said, she actually looked relieved, "you will become a full member of the legion, and stay in contact with the others on this quest. As for you," she turned to the other jinchuuriki, "some of you may stay, but the quest would be done best with as many people in your group." They could read between the lines, she was nicely asking them to leave. With that the goddess left, and there was silence among the ranks of the legion.

"Well," Temari said, "which cohort would like to take Garra into their legion." She glared at one of the senior centurions, he nodded and spoke up.

"We will take him; the letters speak highly of him." He said, he was a well-muscled kid, about seventeen, and had a few scars on his face.

"Very well, the third cohort would like to take him, do no others wish for him to be in their cohort?" Temari was about to continue on quickly but a voice spoke up.

"We'll take him." Another of the senior centurions spoke up, he was a thin looking kid with greasy brown hair, he was probably the same age as the other kid.

"Why would you at the first cohort want him?" Temari asked, glaring at him.

"As Doug said, they are good letters of recommendation, since he has your personal… endorsement, I believe he would do well in our cohort." He spoke softly, but there was a hint of something in his tone, he didn't seem like a very trustworthy guy, he seemed like one of those people you just try to avoid.

"Very well." She said, but her tone screamed that it wasn't very well, "since two cohorts want him, he may choose which one to go to."

Garra looked to his sister, she was in front of him slightly, and turned slightly so when she put her hand behind her back he was the only one to see. She made a sign that looked like the English sign languages 'OK' only with both the index and middle fingers down, which wouldn't make sense, but in Japanese it stood for three.

He nodded to her, and said as much, "I will join the third cohort."

The guy from the first cohort looked annoyed for a minute before smiling slightly, "I understand, such a… shame to waste potential in a lesser cohort."

The members of the third cohort slammed their shields down into the ground, the senior centurion from third smirked, "my cohort has spoken, we accept this new recruit."

Temari turned to Garra fully, "congratulations, you are now a probatio, you'll be given a tablet with the name and your cohort. In one years' time, or if you complete an act of valour, you will become a full member of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. Serve Rome, obey the rules of the legion, and defend the camp with honour. Senatus Populusque Romanus!" She said, the legion echoed this, "centurions, you and your troops have an hour for dinner. Tonight, we will convene in the coliseum, a competition will be held, the winner will receive fifty denarii."

There were cheers from the cohorts and excited chatting as they broke ranks and made their way to the mess hall quickly. Temari turned around, her hands on her hips as she glared at the jinchuuriki, they didn't flinch, except Garra, but in all fairness Temari was his sister, and now apparently his boss.

"What the hell is your problem?" Fu asked when all the witnesses had left, Kankuro had taken one look at his sister's face and made himself scarce.

"My problem? You embarrassed me in front of the entire legion." She scowled, switching to Japanese.

"You put us on the spot, how the hell, were we supposed to know you would try and bring us into your army?!" Yugito asked.

"You came here, it's normally expected that you would join the legion when you come here, in the entire history of the legion I don't think anyone has done what you have done!"

"Speaking of what you have done." Fu turned to Garra, "what the hell have you done?!"

"Joined the legion, apparently." Fu was glowing with anger, literally, her skin was giving off light as she glared at him, "look, we know that Naruto will probably show up here at some point, it would be a good idea to keep someone posted here, and don't say it's like Utakata, it's probably safer than what he's doing. Here I have Temari and Kankuro, and a legion of Romans, I won't be alone."

"You-" Fu began.

"He's right." Roshi said, "as much as I hate to admit it, the best idea would be to keep him here, Naruto will show up here eventually, it's better to have him here."

Fu looked like she wanted to argue but stopped at Roshi's stare, "… fine." She said, sulking.

"Good."

"Alright, no why the hell are you lot not joining the legion?" Temari asked, getting sick of being ignored.

"Because we're looking for Naruto, he's somewhere around the country, there was a high chance of him being here, and there is still a chance." Roshi explained.

"And you're going because he isn't here?" She asked, "why not wait for him to come here?"

They knew they couldn't say anything about the Greek camp, so they tried to think of another reason, finally Roshi found one, "like we said, he's in danger, the longer we waste trying to find him the more danger he's in."

Temari seemed to accept that, she turned away and made her way to the mess hall, "come on, you may eat with the legion, but I expect you to be gone soon, if time is of the essence then you shouldn't waste it here." If that wasn't the nicest way to say, 'get the hell out of here!' then there wasn't one.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Hey, so this will be the last chapter I upload this year, first off I'd like to say happy new year. Next, this is probably going to be the second last chapter, then I'll be moving back to the sea of monsters. I might be able to have that done early January, it all depends. I have another author note at the bottom of the page, so please read it. If you don't, thanks for reading so far, and happy new year.**

"So, on the plus side, our trip proved that there were no foxes in New Rome, we found out that there is someone watching us sometimes according to Garra and Utakata and we have a sweet ride. We also know the names of a few of the foxes and know the rough location of two of them. The hunters know what we're looking for and helped my brother slightly on his quest." Yagura said, counting the things out on one hand as she said them. "On the downside, we lost Utakata and Garra, pissed off most of the Roman side of the family, Hana went deaf for a bit and we have no foxes to show for it. We also found out that being off the boat attracts monsters."

"Are you complaining, or just stating the obvious?" Yugito asked, "you also forgot about most of us meeting our parents, that's a plus to me."

"Yeah, also most of you met siblings," Roshi said, "and we watched Monty Python."

Yagura sniggered, "yeah, shame we never got to make fun of the Roman's, sorry, Wowmens like that."

"All in all, it was a good trip." Yagura summed up, "but we don't have Naruto."

They were sitting on the ship, because of the length of the jump they had made last time, they had to wait for a while before they could leave. So, for now they were just sitting on deck, floating about, well, Yagura was driving the ship using her magic ship controlling powers, but since they had no proper destination, they were just drifting with the current. The current seemed to like the ship, since there were no rough waves or anything, they had left the San Francisco bay a while ago and were now far enough out that the shore was just a vaguely grey and brown blotch.

Fu had been flying around the ship in circles, lazily doing loop-de-loops she had been half listening to the conversation, she had been quiet ever since they had left New Rome. The others completely understood how she felt, she felt slightly betrayed, first Utakata had left, then Garra, Fu had been abandoned many times in her life, but she always hated the feeling she got from it.

Sure, neither of them had abandoned her, but it sure felt like it. It had physically hurt to see Temari and Garra get along so well, for so long Garra had been her little brother, he was the second youngest, and even though he shared a similar fate to her, she always wanted to make it as comfortable for him as possible. She could remember back when he was a toddler and they would play together, hide and seek, or when she would fly around him and make the world sparkle just to hear him laugh.

As time went on he changed. It wasn't fast, but he hardened to the world, he tried not to show how much the world affected him when he was with the other jinchuuriki, but he could never hide it all. It started when he became quieter, he could remember the days when he would shout and laugh as much as she did. He changed though, he stopped laughing so much and stopped smiling, he started getting quieter then he just stopped smiling all together.

To be fair, this was when they had decided on their mad plan to stop Zestu and the rest of his organisation, they had all stopped smiling so much then, but Garra stopped smiling altogether. Then came one of the worst parts of her life. When Garra wasn't a jinchuuriki. When he was brought back to 'life' they had ironically lost him, if he had died, then they could have stayed in contact, until they brought him back, but he had lived as a regular human.

When they got him back he was different, after all this time she had finally figured out why he was so different. He had replaced them.

Temari and Kankuro had stolen him from them, at least in Fu's eyes, and it hurt to think like that, to think that the one she called brother could just replace her like that. She could see it in New Rome, how they had acted, how dare they. How dare they take what wasn't theirs in the first place.

A little part of her realised that they had the right to call him their brother, more of a right than she did, but she wouldn't see that. They were biologically related, that meant nothing to her, where were they when Garra needed them, when he felt lonely, when he just wanted a hug.

She didn't notice the tears until they obscured her vision, she swiped at them angrily, she didn't want to cry over him. He had left them, he had left her. A little voice told her that it was all for Naruto, and she froze.

Naruto.

How could she complain about Garra and Utakata when what she had done to Naruto was so much worse? They had hurt him in ways that they still did not fully understand, and probably never would. They were supposed to protect him, keep him safe, yet they only caused him pain, he was the youngest of them, he had faced worse problems than any of them had.

"Fu!" She was broken from her thoughts by Yagura, she looked back to the ship and saw that she had flown quite far away. She flew back and landed down on the ship, "you okay?" Yagura asked, "you seem pretty distracted"

"It's nothing." Fu said, "when will we be leaving again?"

"Like an hour according to Hana anyway, but we've figured out there's a problem, well not a problem, more of an inconvenience."

"What inconvenience?"

"Well, we basically need hit reverse on all our stops to go back, it'll speed things up, so we're going back to the Santa Monica beach, it's why I was calling you back, we're heading back, it'll save us a few hours cooling the engine. But we'll be leaving like a half hour later than the engine needs. See, we could leave from here and it would take longer to cool down when we get there, or we go now and have less cooling time. They're roughly the same time, but it just means we're heading back now."

"Fine." Fu said, "let's get going."

"Fu…" Yagura said, "I know Garra leaving hurt, but… he isn't leaving forever, by doing this, it helps us find Naruto."

"I know, I'm not mad at him for that." Fu said, "I just… I'm mad that he had to leave."

"I know, so am I, but we'll be back together soon, you'll see." She smiled to Fu and pat her shoulder, "now go talk to B, see if you can get him to brave coming back upstairs."

Fu smiled back, it wouldn't be long until they were all back together, for some reason she just knew that was wrong. Fu saw a flash of gold in front of her and heard someone say something, she looked up, there was nothing there, she must be imagining things.

The trip didn't take that long surprisingly, but when they reached the coast, what they saw surprised them a lot. The city was in flames, there were signs that there had been an earthquake, there was no damage to the buildings which was good, but the smoke showed that there were a few car collisions.

"What happened?" Yugito asked in confusion, they couldn't make much out, they were still pretty far away from the coast. They did see when a huge pillar of flame rose on the beach, Yagura urged the ship to go faster, it seemed the ocean agreed as a huge wave pushed them forward. When they were close enough they could make out two figures duking it out on the beach, with swords. One was a kid, probably about twelve or thirteen, while the other was a huge man, as they drew closer, they recognised the boy.

"Percy?" Yagura asked in worry, they saw the man put Percy on the defensive, but then a pretty big wave came and knocked the man back, Percy disappeared in the water and they couldn't make out much of what happened next, until the water disappeared, and they saw Percy cut into the figure's ankle. They were close enough to see golden ichor fall into the ocean and realised that Percy had been fighting a god, and had was now winning.

The god roared, and the sea seemed to explode, the god was glaring at Percy, and the jinchuuriki were now in striking distance. Fu reached for her bow and had it notched before a feeling overcame them. It was like the world lost all colour, like every light was being extinguished and a heavy presence was watching them. Time seemed to slow, and the god lowered his sword.

"You have made an enemy godling." The god said, they could hear him clearly now, "You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware." He then seemed to realise he had an audience to his defeat, he looked at the jinchuuriki and gave a vicious grin. "Well, I'm a man of my word, there's your transport."

Before either party could complain, his body began to glow, some instinct saved the lives of the jinchuuriki, and Annabeth, she shouted not to look. They all turned away until the light died out and the god was gone, all that was left was a bronze helmet that floated to Percy's feet.

He looked at it before turning to look up at the boat full of jinchuuriki, Grover and Annabeth came rushing over to where Percy was, but there was a sound of flapping before they could reach him. Three wrinkly, leathery figures floated down, the Furies, all of them were here now, it seemed their business with Utakata was done.

"We saw the whole thing," one hissed, almost dejectedly, "so… it truly was not you"

Percy glanced at the helmet and tossed it up to her, she caught it with a look of surprise, "return that to Lord Hades. Tell him the truth. Tell him to call off the war." He said.

She hesitated, then ran a forked tongue over her green, leathery lips. "Live well, Percy Jackson. Become a true hero. Because if you do not, if you ever come into my clutches again..." She cackled, savouring the idea. Then she and her sisters rose on their bats' wings, fluttered into the smoke-filled sky, and disappeared.

Grover and Annabeth closed the distance between them and just stared at him in amazement, then they turned to the boat that was coming closer. Grover bleated nervously, while Annabeth just looked confused, Percy himself just grinned at the sight of his sister.

"Percy…" Grover said, "that was so incredibly…"

"Terrifying!" Annabeth breathed out.

"Cool!" Grover corrected.

"Amazing!" Yagura shouted over as she brought her boat to a halt.

"Yeah," Percy swayed on his feet for a bit before straightening slightly, "did you guys feel that… whatever it was?"

They nodded uneasily, and Grover suggested, "it must've been the Furies overhead," he then cast a glance to the jinchuuriki, "or…" He didn't need to finish, Annabeth glared at him warningly while Percy just turned to face his sister as they walked over… Across the water, they literally walked across the water.

Percy gripped the backpack tightly, as the jinchuuriki finally reached them he was wrapped in a hug from Yagura, something that surprised everyone. She let go quickly and smiled at him.

"That was amazing, you fought a god!" She said holding his shoulders and quickly scanning him for any wounds.

"I just tricked him, he would have won if we were anywhere but the beach." Percy said, blushing slightly at the praise.

"Now, now, not everyone can fight a god and come out mostly unscarred." Most of the wounds he got were superficial cuts which healed when he entered the water.

"Which god was that anyway, I don't recognise him?" Yugito asked.

"Ares." The jinchuuriki looked even more surprised at that, and Yagura looked annoyed for a minute, she was about to say something but stopped herself.

"What did he say about us giving you a lift?" Fu asked sounding kind of annoyed.

"He promised to organise a lift to pick us up and bring us back to New York."

"Well, you're in luck, when's your deadline?" Yagura asked ignoring Fu, who looked pretty annoyed.

"Summer solstice, about six days from now." Annabeth said.

"We could give you a lift then, we're going to your camp." Yagura said.

"But-" Fu began but Yagura sent her a silent message.

"Now, climb aboard." Yagura said with a smile.

Percy returned the smile and waded into the water and swimming up to the boat, Roshi took one look at Annabeth and just grinned. He hooked his arms under her armpits and lifted her into the air, keeping her feet above the water and then walking with her, she looked a bit put out but didn't argue, lest he drop her. Grover stood there for a while, not really trusting the water, hooves were not good for swimming with, Yagura flashed a cheek grin and suddenly he was held in a watery hand and dumped on the deck of the ship.

He bleated nervously and shook himself dry.

Roshi looked at Annabeth, she had a myriad of emotions written on her face most notably anger and fear. He put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye in concern, she tried to stat strong, but caved in at the look, she looked ready to cry, but still held it in.

"Ares said what he did with Whiskers." She said quietly, and for a moment her brother froze, the god could have hurt him, his brother, "he… he said that he gave him to the hunt." Immediately Roshi's fear was washed away, he almost laughed, "Whiskers was terrified of the hunt, is terrified, I think they hunted him before he met me, what if they hurt him, what if they… what if they kill him. You said he's your brother, you need to help me find him."

Roshi actually laughed at that, Annabeth's looked shocked, before that turned to anger she was about to yell at him, but he stopped her with a hand to her shoulder, "he is probably in the safest place he can be, other than with us. The hunters are looking for him, but they won't hurt him."

"Why? And how can you be sure?" She asked angrily.

"Because Lady Artemis has ordered them to bring him back alive. They would not hurt him in any way, especially if he sent him to his… to the ones looking for him the most." He said, looking down in the end, "chances are, their heading to camp, he's probably told them there's another fox at camp, they'll be half way there by now."

He smiled at her warmly and then gestured for her to go down below deck, while the other jinchuuriki were still getting on board. Once they were all finally on-board Percy seemed to have finally noticed the huge crowd of reporters, cameramen and witnesses, "hey won't they see us driving away like this?"

"Nope," Yagura said with a grin, "the mist will make it look like something else, they probably won't even notice we were here."

"Right, okay." He watched everyone pile under the deck and followed his sister as she led him to the steering wheel.

"So, did you find it?" She asked.

"Yeah," he opened the bag and she saw the symbol of power, she grinned at her brother.

"Well done," she said, "I think, in doing that, you deserve to drive."

"Really?" He asked, before she had only let him hit the big red button, she hadn't said he couldn't drive, but he just assumed he wouldn't be allowed.

"Really, captain." She said grinning, "all the settings are set to our next location, we're going back to the great Salt Lake, then Denver, and so on. It's pretty simple, when waiting for the engine to cool in between jumps, you can drive us closer, it just means there's less time for the engine to cool down." She explained, "now, if you'd like to do the honours." She gestured to the button.

He smiled at her, "thanks." Then slammed his hand down on the button and the ship sank into the depths.

(With Utakata)

Packing was surprisingly quick, the two kids didn't have much in the way of clothes and the fox had nothing, They, packed a few spare changes of clothes, some toiletries and a few snacks. Nico also packed some cards from this game he had started playing, so far, he had a few decks and one of the action figures.

He was really enjoying the game though and so far, had won the games against the other kids in the hotel. Now they were leaving, Utakata ignored all of the bellhops attempts to halt their departure and herded his two new charges with him out of the hotel. The early morning weather greeted them and Utakata scowled slightly, finding a newspaper stand and learning he had lost three days to the casino put him in a bad mood.

"What's wrong?" Bianca asked seeing her brother scowl at the paper.

"Nothing, just don't want to be leaving so early in the morning." He said.

"We could wait in the hotel until later." Nico piped up.

"No, I think we've spent enough time in the hotel." The jinchuuriki muttered, he remembered his father saying that they had been there from the nineteen forties, had they remembered anything about that, "how long do you remember being there for?"

"Oh, a few weeks, a month at the most." She frowned, "maybe a bit more."

"Yeah, we weren't there that long." Nico said, "and it wasn't boring or anything, it was lots of fun, even if Bianca was being a spoilsport." He muttered.

"You are too young to be using a gun, Nico." Bianca said briskly, "I don't know what that was doing in a hotel room."

"It must have been a mistake with on the staff's part." Utakata said, "do you remember where you were before that?"

Nico opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out, the two of them had confused looks on their faces, before Bianca finally spoke, "no, we… we were in Washington for a bit." A crease appeared on her forehead, "and Venice, I remember being in Venice… but not…"

"That's okay." Utakata said, "it'll come back to you, nothing to worry about." He smiled at them, "now, we've to get a taxi. The house is in L.A. so it's going to be a long ride."

Bianca looked confused, "we don't we book a flight there?"

Utakata's eyes widened a fraction before he spoke, "sorry, no… I'm afraid of heights."

"But-"

"Nope, I am never getting in one of those things, they are terrifying. It was bad enough on the boat." He muttered to himself.

"You were on a boat?" Nico asked, "where're you from?"

"That's, not important. But yes, I did take a boat with my family over here."

"Y-you have a family?" Bianca asked, slightly startled, "are we going with them or alone or…"

"No, you probably won't meet them… at least for a while."

"Why not?" Nico asked, "if we have more family, shouldn't we get to meet them?"

"Oh, no… we're not related." Utakata said, "I was… adopted in a sense, they are like brothers and sisters to me, but we aren't actually biologically related, so they have no relation to you."

"Oh, right, sorry, it's just when you said family, I thought we were…"

"I know what you mean, but the chances are we won't run into them, I hope not anyway." He muttered quietly but it seemed they hear him.

"Why don't you want to see them again?" Nico asked, "did you get in a fight? Me and Bianca fight sometimes too."

"We did get into a fight, they weren't happy with a decision I made." Utakata said.

"What decision?" Nico asked.

The jinchuuriki sighed to himself, "well… I decided to take care of you."

They were silent, Bianca had her eyes open and looked shocked, Nico's mouth dropped and even the fox looked surprised.

"U-us?"

"Yeah… it's very complicated, but when we came here, there were nine of us… something bad happened and we ended up split up. We managed to get together except for our youngest, we don't know where he is at all, we've spent the last few years trying to track him down. We only moved here to America because we found out we have family here. One of dad's… lawyers tracked me down and told me about you guys, the others found out and got mad when I said that I was leaving. We were still looking for our youngest when I left, and we still don't know where he is."

"You gave up your friends for us?" Nico asked, Utakata winced at the wording and Bianca glared at her brother, "sorry."

"It's okay, I guess I did do that, but they weren't… aren't just my friends, they're my family too… when I found out it was hard to make the choice."

Bianca looked sad for a minute, before she stood up and wrapped the older child of the Underworld in a hug, "thank you."

Utakata smiled, then Nico joined in the hug, wrapping his arms around his older siblings. When the they broke apart Utakata made his way to a payphone and ordered a cab to pick them up, while they waited Nico tried to teach Utakata to play Mythomagic, which ended poorly, Utakata remembered being told that names had power, and he didn't want to draw attention to the group.

Nico said a few big names, but there was not darkening of the sky or thunderclouds, so he assumed that since they were unaware, the gods were too, so he played with his brother, but didn't say the names, just gesturing or saying nicknames: the wine dude (Dionysus); glowstick (Apollo); nightlight (Artemis) and Sparky-Sparky Boom Man (Zeus). This apparently made the game much better, especially when they used Down Under (Hades). Until then he didn't know that shadows could be mad at you.

When the cab did arrive, they put all their stuff in the back and got in, Utakata showed the driver his credit card and paid for the journey. Since the journey would take a few hours he had taken out, in advance, a few fluffy jumpers for his two siblings to lean on while they slept. Utakata sat in the middle, Nico on the right and Bianca on the left and he set the jumpers on his own shoulder so the two of them could rest easy.

As for the fox, Utakata used his knowledge on the mist to make it appear that there was no fox and had him resting in the jinchuuriki's lap.

The two of them dozed off easily and the fox was already asleep before they went into the car, as the jinchuuriki looked over his new family, he promised himself that he would keep them safe.

(With the Hunters)

After Whiskers had them open the box, they immediately closed it, he saw the sword, and he felt a familiar feeling from the sword. They hadn't told him of its importance, but they had said that they would eventually. They then went to bed, not that any of them had much sleep, since they only had three tents, they decided that Whiskers could sleep with one of them, since they refused to let him sleep out in the forest.

Then they all fought over who would get him. Zoe gave up her claim pretty quickly, but the other three fought for him. Now, they were all well-meaning, and did this in a very platonic way, but it didn't sound right when they were fighting for him. Eventually Zoe stopped the fight by saying they'd do a rota, and they'd draw straws (pieces of grass) for first dibs. Of course, there were a lot more 'thou's,' 'shalt's' and 'art's' in her explanation, but you get the gist.

Anko got first dibs, then Yugao, Kurenai and finally Zoe, and each of them treated him differently, none of them were worse (well Anko's was worse, but in a nice way).

Anko held him like a teddy bear for the first night, which wasn't comfortable, Kurenai had him lying on her stomach with the sleeping bag open to the warm summer night, Yugao did the same, but in the middle of the night shifted him so that he was beside her face, and Zoe… well Zoe's was a strange night. She claimed to have known Whiskers other form Naruto (when he was a fox) and they had spent a lot of time together. Apparently, they slept together a lot (don't… this is not that kind of story) and they used to have a sort of position, where she would sleep using his stomach as a pillow.

Now this was uncomfortable for a completely different reason to the one you might expect. This was the position Annabeth used to use when they were on the run, and it was also how Thalia slept with Parrot when they were with them. This was something he thought was something special between him and Annabeth, but to find out that not only was it used by other people, but by at the worst, nine other people… It hurt.

It also raised a scary question with the fox. Was he his own person? Could he be? Was he just a clone? Was he just a shell of what this Naruto was? All these questions went through the fox's head, after Zoe had asked to sleep this was. And do you want to know the worst part? He let her.

It felt so natural, like it had with Annabeth, which hurt, because it wasn't her.

"We're nearly there." Anko said, drawing the fox's attention away from his depressing thoughts.

"Really?" He asked, he hadn't noticed how quickly they were traveling, and come to think of it, he hadn't been keeping track of where they were, he assumed it would be at least a week before they were there, but they had somehow made the trip in a few days, using all manner of vehicles 'repurposed' from several random men, not that any of them had any qualms about doing that.

"Yeah." Kurenai said, "we'll be entering New York soon."

"Tis good time." Zoe said, "though thy driving leaves much to desire."

"Zip it, we saw what you drive like Nightshade." Anko said, she shivered slightly.

"Tis not foul, thou art slow, thy driving is equivalent to that of an elderly woman." Zoe said, the others looked at her silently asking 'how can you be the one to say that?'

"Well, as interesting as all of this is," Whiskers interrupted, "how long until we're back at camp?"

"Well," Anko said, "we're just crossing the Hudson, as long as the traffic is good, it'll be an hour."

"Right, and-" Whiskers cut himself off when he saw a boat rise from the river, "did you see that?!"

"Yeah…" Kurenai said, "that's not normal, but it's nothing to do with…" She trailed off and her eyes widened, "you're joking." She mumbled to herself.

Yugao and Zoe shared similar looks of disbelief, While Whiskers just looked confused, sure the boat was strange, but why did the green haired girl make them seem so shocked?

"Who is she?" Whiskers asked, he just noticed that they had stopped the car in the middle of the George Washington bridge, the other cars honking seemed to wake Anko from her confusion, she pulled over at the side. She must have used the mist slightly since no one seemed to question it, just avoiding the car and going around it.

They all got out, Whiskers following the hunters in confusion, they went to the side of the bridge and Anko yelled over, "I thought you lot were across the country!"

Yagura looked up in surprise, "I thought you lot would be in camp by now!" She shouted back, "and yeah, we were, but we have an awesome boat."

"Cool, that thing got you here?" Anko asked giddily.

"Yeah, I know." Yagura said sounding proud of her boat.

"Have you any new leads?" Yugao asked, taking the conversation off the magic boat.

"Yeah," she said stiffly, "Utakata was given one from his dad and went alone, and Garra, he's waiting in San Francisco if any show up there."

Zoe looked mildly concerned, "he doth not possess the capacity to join them, doth he?"

"There's a chance, we can, so he probably will, how do you know about them?"

"I hath been in milady's service from the prosperity of Greece, the hunt hath not visited therein, but I hath on occasion been an envoy of milady."

"Right, well, there's a chance, so Garra staid to keep an eye out."

"Wait," Kurenai said, "where are you talking about?"

"Nothing that concerns thou." Zoe said.

"Anyway," Yagura said, suddenly gaining a slight glint in her eye, "have you, perhaps happened upon a certain fox on your journey?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Anko asked, Whiskers jumped onto the railing so he was clearly visible.

Yagura smiled softly, "we have someone who wants to say hi." As if they choregraphed it to the exact time, the hatch on the boat opened, out stepped a familiar figure, blonde hair cleaner than the last time he saw her, grey eyes glinting in happiness as she saw him, Annabeth emerged.

"Annie!" The fox yelled down to her.

Her eyes brightened even more at that, she grinned widely and shouted back to him, "Whiskers!"

The fox did something that might have been a bit stupid, but whatever, he jumped down into the water, ignoring the surprised gasps from the hunters and the shock on Annabeth's face which turned to fear. He hit the water, but it didn't hurt somehow, come to think of it, he hit the water much earlier than he should have.

He looked around and found himself being held by a watery hand a few metres above the surface level, the hand brought him to the boat where he ignored the strange phenomenon and lunged into Annabeth's arms.

"I missed you so much." She muttered as she held onto her fox.

"I know," Whiskers said, "I'm sorry."

"I thought you were dead." She said quietly, "w-when Percy said what happened. Then Ares came, and said h-he had you, I was so scared, he could do what he wanted with you." She pulled back from the hug and looked him right in the eye, "then he said the hunters had you. He said they would…" She couldn't finish.

"Annie, I'm here, there's nothing for you to worry about." He hopped onto her shoulder and held on tight, "I'm not going anywhere. I won't leave you." If he looked her in the eye, he would see more fear appear.

(New Rome)

Garra was settling in well. The first three days had been… different. He had been so used to being with the other jinchuuriki, it was strange to be relatively alone. His brother and sister were there of course, and they treated him well, but there was a rift between them, Temari was so busy being the only Praetor and Kankuro was constantly trying to gain support from people that he didn't have time to hang out with his little brother.

Most of the other kids at camp were a bit distant with him, and he assumed it had something to do with coming to camp with a load of people who didn't want to join the legion. Though Juno had said they were on a quest from the gods, several campers didn't like the idea of freelance demi-gods that weren't loyal to the legion. Garra's connection to them made them treat him differently.

He was still on Probatio, but that didn't mean much to him, he knew that at the moment, he had been a genin for the invasion of the Konoha, and he had been the main weapon for them. Being the lowest rank meant nothing for his strength, as proven when he won death ball the night before. He had earned his laurels then even though there was uproar when he unveiled his sand to the Roman demi-gods.

They had been thoroughly freaked out when instead of dodging, the balls he simply had his sand block them. Unfortunately, the acid balls ate through his sand quickly and he had to fight back, which he did quickly and tore down the opposition closest to him. This lead to outcries of him being a cheater, mainly from the first cohort (they were the ones closest to him, and were consequently the ones beaten first).

Which led to what was happening now. Apparently, this caused a big enough stir for the senate to get involved, normally this wouldn't be the case, but Garra had figured out the real reason for this going so far. Temari's position as Praetor, and Kankuro's chances for joining her in that spot.

He had played the political game back when he was the Kazekage, and from experience he knew an opening when he saw one. The people against his siblings were going to try and use him to get their own agenda's done, they picked a really bad time to visit the Roman camp, the elections going to happen on the feast of Fortuna. Since it was now the eighteenth, the feast was in six days, that was enough time to sway the votes of many people.

This trial would be big enough to sway people's votes, even if they knew Kankuro and had spent years with him, his brother could change their opinion of him. Something that was a very stupid way of doing things, but unfortunately, they couldn't help it.

"I'm sorry about all this Garra." Temari said as she led him to the city.

"It's okay," this would be his first time entering the city, he couldn't deny he was a little excited, "I understand how it is." He smiled weakly, "I sure picked a bad week to show up."

"It's got nothing to do with you." She looked annoyed, "this is all Germanicus's fault."

Temari had explained that Germanicus was the guy from the first cohort who wanted Garra to join, he was a fifth-generation legacy of Mercury. His family had been serving the legion for years, and he was named after a famous Roman general, he apparently had a silver tongue, but tried to stay out of the spotlight. He preferred to offer advice to his legionaries and have them gain political power, with him being the man behind the curtain.

Though _he_ didn't have much political power, he had so many 'friends' on the senate and throughout the ranks, he would almost run the legion. Thankfully, thanks to the substantial amount of Roman's who he couldn't get his hands on, this was mostly due to the arrival of Jason Grace, son of Jupiter. The boy didn't even know how much he had done for the legion by simply existing. It turned out that due to his father, people almost worshipped the ground he walked on, of course there were people smart enough not to this, but to the masses, he was the example of the perfect Roman.

This somehow resulted in the younger legionnaires looking up to him, and many of the older ones putting a lot of pressure on him. This messed up Germanicus' game, as it was usually him people came to, mostly due to his 'friends' advising others to do so, which had inflated the amount of people who supported him. Now though, there was no fresh blood for the kid to exploit, and his 'friends' were slowly dwindling, which was why, for the first time he was going to go for Praetor.

He still had a good portion of the legion under his thumb, so he had plenty of people voting for him, there were a few others who would be going for Praetor. For some reason the kid Octavian decided to stick his name in, he was guaranteed to lose, no one was going to elect a kid to run the legion. Kankuro was also in the run, as well as a few kids who Garra had not met yet.

"No, some of the problems are my fault. I gave him an in, if he's as bad as you've said he'll exploit this to the max. I also refused his 'generous offer' to join his cohort." Garra said, "I'm not making this easy for you, or Kankuro. Speaking of which, where is he?"

"He went on ahead," Temari said, they were approaching the Pomerian line, the city limits.

They stopped in front of the people trying to get passed the OCD guardian god who was currently forcing four campers to cut the grass around with scissors.

"Ah, Praetor, you're going to the trial?" The god said.

"Indeed, here is my fan, my sword, my knife and my spare." Temari said, handing over the aforementioned weapons to the gods assistant, a young boy about five who set them in a tray, well, beside the tray, and with Temari's help, apparently the fan weighed about as much as a four-foot fan would weigh.

"Right, now go on ahead, ah, who's this?" The statue said turning to Garra, he then scrunched his face up in a thinking pose for a few seconds.

"Terminus, this is my brother, Garra." Temari said, "he's new to the legion."

The gods face scrunched up more, "I thought you only had Kankuro, the only other child of Juno I know of is…" His eyes widened, "no, no, no! You are not allowed in the city!"

A few of the kids looked up from the grass in confusion, Garra looked surprised, his sister mirroring that, until she glared at the statue.

"Terminus," she said in a steely voice, "why are you denying him entry?"

"I know what he is, and you know as well, you should know better, the rules clearly state you cannot bring weapons into the city." The god said, "you and the others are not allowed passed the Pomerian line. Now get away from here."

Garra's eyes widened before they became slits, "I am not a weapon." He gritted.

"That is one of the definitions of what you are." Terminus said, "now scram. No matter how living they are, there are to be no weapons in the city."

"And I told you, I am not a weapon." Garra said, "what I am, is human."

"You are a jinchuuriki, are you not?" At his lack of answer the god continued, "you lot are all weapons of mass destruction wrapped up in a human shell, I can't disarm you, therefore you are a threat to the city." By this point, a few of the Romans came to see what the commotion was about, "I will not allow you, or any of the others entrance into my city."

"Terminus." Temari interrupted, "we have to be at the senate, we-"

"No, he will not enter the city, he is literally a weapon of mass destruction. I am the guardian of the city, I am not allowed to let any weapons in, your brother is a weapon. I cannot let him in." People were whispering to themselves now.

"Stop calling me a weapon." Garra whispered, his eyes had a strange look in them, on his back, his sand shifted restlessly, the backpack falling to its natural gourd shape. The sand on it started to crack as the sand on the inside shifted about, if you listened closely you could hear the sound of sand grinding against itself.

"Garra!" Temari said, gripping his shoulder, he turned to her and she flinched slightly at the look, she knew that look, it was the same one that haunted the nightmares of her childhood, "Garra, calm down, please."

"I'm not a weapon, I'm not a monster." Garra whispered.

"Yes, you're not a weapon, you're not a monster, now calm down." Temari said gripping his shoulders.

Garra seemed to snap out of the trance he was in, he turned away and began to march back to the barracks, people spread aside as he passed. Temari turned around and glared at the statue, he made an expression like he was shrugging, but the lack of arms made it difficult to be sure.

"I'm just doing my job, what, did you actually expect me to let a titan into the city?" The whispers that had surrounded them intensified, no doubt rumours would be spread around the camp by the end of the day.

Temari looked aghast at that, she quickly switched to Japanese, hoping the god spoke it and spoke so quickly it would take someone who was fluent to translate, thankfully he was a god, "what the hell do you mean a titan?"

"Oh, sorry, did you want that a secret from the camp?" Terminus replied in her tongue, "haven't spoken this in years, you know I remember-"

"I don't care what the hell you remember, why did you say he had a titan in him?" Temari interrupted the godly rant.

"Well, I expect you knew, you do know what a jinchuuriki is, do you not?" The boundary god asked.

"Of course, I do, they hold the bijuu in them." She said.

"And… What more do you want me to say?"

"Bijuu are not titans." The demi-goddess said, "they are chakra monsters, beings made of chakra."

"Is that what you thought they were." The boundary god asked, "I know it's been some time since I visited your world, my last break was centuries ago, but I know what the bijuu are, and where they come from."

"What they hell are you talking about?"

"The Shinju, technically the primordial of your world, got split into the nine bijuu, surely you know that much. The titans, well they're a much simpler matter, children of Caelus and Terra, they are the same, the children of primordial gods."

Temari looked shocked, she couldn't even think of something to say to that, it made sense, but… she just couldn't accept it. She turned and ran after her brother, hoping to find him before someone else did, if she had looked, she would have seen the senators coming out of the city, Kankuro and Germanicus with them. The confused looks of most of the senators became looks of shock and horror when a nearby legionnaire informed them of what happened. Kankuro just looked shocked. Germanicus, however, he grinned, he had finally got an opening.

 **A/N: So... yeah. this is a thing. I know it might seem to come out of nowhere the whole bijuu being titans, but I have been planning to this from sometime in the start, it wasn't just something that I thought of last minute, I have thought this through many times, and I may have even** **eluded** **to it in previous chapters. I have done a lot of that, and anything I elude to will be** **addressed** **eventually, I have something I've been planning from the start that I will really enjoy revealing, and it's been mentioned plenty of times in the first part, and even a bit now. As for the thing with Garra not being allowed in the city, I think something like that has been done before but I'm not sure where, if someone has done it, I'm not trying to copy from them.**

 **Anyway, happy new year, good luck in 2018. See you in the next chapter.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Yeah, so I kind of miscalculated slightly, I thought this would be the last chapter, but I was wrong. This chapter is long enough as it is, it's over ten thousand words so be happy.**

After meeting up with the hunters, Annabeth, Grover, Hana, B, Yugito, Roshi and Fu decided to go with them back to camp. Yagura decided to help her brother, mostly since she was the only one of them to know about the quest, and he was her brother.

So, they headed to the Empire state building, the current home of Olympus. They got in some trouble at the lobby, but the guy at the door changed his tone at the sight of the strongest weapon in the Greek world. So now, they were in the elevator to heaven, the atmosphere was tense, they were about to enter the realm of the gods, and the king of said gods happened to hate them, they could be walking to their deaths.

"~Raindrops keep falling on my head~"

"You know this music isn't really cutting it for me." Yagura said.

"Yeah, you'd think the elevator to Olympus would have better tunes." Percy agreed.

They were silent for a moment, before Yagura spoke again, "we watched some more Monty Python."

"Really, did you like it?"

"Not really, but that's only because we didn't get most of the jokes, probably just the different cultures."

"That's a shame."

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened, and both children of Poseidon freaked at the lack of ground in the surrounding area. There was a narrow stone walkway that lead up to the mountain, bellow the city of Manhattan sprawled looked more like a map. White marble steps were on the walkway, Percy absent-minded-ly hummed 'stairway to heaven' and Yagura stared at him in confusion.

The stairs led up to a decapitated peak of a mountain, its summit covered in a light sprinkling of snow. Clinging to the mountainside were dozens of multileveled palaces, a city of mansions, all with white, columned porticos, gilded terraces, and bronze braziers glowing with a thousand fires. Roads wound crazily up to the peak, where the largest palace gleamed against the snow. Precariously perched gardens bloomed with olive trees and rosebushes. There was an open-air market filled with colourful tents, a stone amphitheatre built on one side of the mountain, a hippodrome and a coliseum on the other.

They passed giggling wood nymphs who threw olives at Percy from their garden; hawkers in the market tried to sell ambrosia-on-a-stick, new shields, and genuine glitter weave replicas of the Golden Fleece - as seen on Hephaestus-TV. The nine muses were tuning their instruments for a concert in the park while a small crowd gathered. Satyrs and naiads and a bunch of good looking teenagers who might've been minor gods and goddesses. Nobody seemed worried about an impending civil war, in fact, everybody seemed in a festive mood. Several of them turned to the passing children of Poseidon and whispered to themselves.

Percy couldn't help but compare it to the Underworld, they were identical, only a different colour pallet was used. Down below, everything was black and bronze, while on Olympus, it was all white and gold, Hades must have missed these golden halls, enough to build a replica. Well, either that or Persephone wore the pants in the relationship and enjoyed her original palace on the mountain. It could be that.

The climbed the steps to the courtyard passing it they made it to the throne room of the gods. The door was open a crack so the two of them entered into the throne room of the gods, it was big.

Saying that doesn't do it justice though. Massive columns rose to the domed ceiling which reflected the night sky, stars danced across it, the constellations seeming to come to life. Twelve thrones built for people at least ten foot taller than the demi-gods were arranged in the same way the cabins were at camp half-blood. All of them were empty, in fact the only occupant in the room was a little girl at the giant hearth pit in the centre of the room where a fire was blazing happily.

The two demi-gods shared a look and shrugged, then they turned to the little girl who was staring at them with an amused grin. There was silent in the chamber for a minute before the girl spoke up:

"You're early." She said simply.

"Are we?" Percy asked, "sorry, it's just… you know I assumed I just had to come when I got the bolt." He said looking sheepish.

"Oh, no, it's not a bad thing." She said with a playful grin, "my brothers are just sulking right now, we expected you to be here in a few more days. Almost everyone thought that if you succeeded you would only make it back by the skin of your teeth."

"Oh, well, thanks, I guess." Percy said, Yagura was sniggering into her hands.

"Give them a minute, I'll tell them you're here." She said before seeming to ignite and disappear, she came back a few seconds later, "they'll be here in just a moment." She said a smile on her face.

A few seconds after she said it, there was a flash of lightning and a god appeared in the biggest throne, made of solid platinum. Zeus. He was wearing a dark blue pinstripe suit and had a well-trimmed beard that looked like a thundercloud, if you looked closely enough you could make out what looked like static electricity sparking in it. His eyes were like a rain storm, and he had a grim expression on his face. When he appeared, the room smelled like ozone.

When he noticed the demi-gods he scowled to himself, before he could say anything, the scent of the sea drafted through the air and another god appeared on the throne next to him. He looked exactly like Yagura remembered him, only bigger, when you compared the two, they were clearly brothers. His throne was a fisherman's chair, in fact, it was the same one as he used in Yagura's dream of him, he had his trident in the fishing rods slot.

He, as opposed to the scowl of his brother, grinned at the two of them conspiratorially, Yagura gave him a quick wave, and they just sat there in silence for a minute. Zeus scowled, and Percy seemed to realise something, he bowed down to the god, a half second later Yagura joined him, this seemed to placate the lord of the sky.

"See what my children have done, brother, they have brought you your bolt back, and three days early." He grinned widely at them, and gave them a wink.

"You still claim him then?" Zeus asked irritably, "you claim a child you sired against our sacred oath?"

Before the other god could speak Yagura cut him off, "hey, you have B too, you broke the oath." Zeus looked ready to smite her, but she spoke quickly in Latin, "and Jason." His form flickered so fast it could be mistaken for his anger, at least to Percy, to both Poseidon and Yagura though.

"Calm brother." Poseidon said, "my daughter raises a good point though, as blunt as she is." He gave her a warning look, "you have claimed your son."

"You and I both know their circumstances are different." Zeus said bitterly.

"I know, and I do understand, I still claim him as mine, and I have admitted my wrongdoing to the council. Now let them speak."

Percy tried to hide the pain and Yagura held herself back, Percy wasn't some mistake, their father shouldn't talk about him like he was one.

"I shall listen, then, hurry with your tale." Zeus said with a grumble, turning his attention to the boy, "then I shall decide whether to destroy him."

"Perseus," Poseidon said. "Look at me."

Percy looked up with a slightly hopeful expression, Yagura stared blankly at the equally blank face that stared at the two of them. She felt contempt, she hated the idea of favouritism, but she could feel it here, she was being treated far differently to her brother, the blank face he wore now was far from the smiling visage of her dreams. His face gave away nothing, no love, no hate and no disappointment, it was a completely blank slate. Yagura found herself reflecting this look, unable to show the happiness she felt when she saw her father, it wasn't fair for her to be the only one to get it.

"Address Lord Zeus, boy," Poseidon said, "tell him your story."

And so, Percy told him everything, Yagura found herself enraptured in the story, at times she was even afraid for her new brother, he had gone through so much trouble to help the gods and they didn't even seem thankful for it. When he reached the part where she came in, Poseidon winced slightly, and Zeus scowled at his brother, but Percy continued, and the gods showed no more reactions.

At the end of the story Percy took out the bolt and laid it at Zeus's feet, it sparked in the gods presence, almost fondly. There was silence for a moment before the god opened his palm, the bolt flew to it immediately, as he closed his fist the tips glowed with electricity before lightning flared off them and the bolt resembled a classic thunderbolt, the room glowed with power and outside lightning lit up the sky. In the gods hand was now a twenty-foot javelin of electricity, bolts arching off and dissipating into the air every few seconds.

"I sense the boy tells the truth," Zeus muttered. "But that Ares would do such a thing... it is most unlike him."

"He is proud and impulsive," Poseidon said. "It runs in the family." He gave off what might have been the ghost of a smirk and his children couldn't help the small grins from appearing for a minute before Percy looked concerned for a minute and spoke up

"Lord?" He asked.

They both spoke in unison and said, "Yes?" Yagura smirked at the misunderstanding.

"Ares didn't act alone. Someone else - something else - came up with the idea."

He then described his dreams, the feeling they'd felt on the beach, that momentary breath of evil that had seemed to stop the world, and made Ares back off from killing the demi-god. Yagura attested to this, saying how she had felt it, even off the shore, then Percy continued telling the gods of his dreams.

"In the dreams," he said, "the voice told me to bring the bolt to the Underworld. Ares hinted that he'd been having dreams, too. I think he was being used, just as I was, to start a war."

"You are accusing Hades, after all?" Zeus asked, a look of slight confusion on his face.

"No," the demi-god said. "I mean, Lord Zeus, I've been in the presence of Hades. This feeling on the beach was different. It was the same thing I felt when I got close to that pit. That was the entrance to Tartarus, wasn't it? Something powerful and evil is stirring down there... something even older than the gods."

Poseidon and Zeus looked at each other. They had a quick, intense discussion in Ancient Greek. The two demi-gods didn't catch most of it, but Percy turned to Yagura with a worried glance and mouthed the word 'father' to her, she nodded gravely

Poseidon made some kind of suggestion, but Zeus cut him off. Poseidon tried to argue, and Zeus held up his hand angrily. "We will speak of this no more," Zeus said. "I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal."

He rose and looked at Percy, his expression softened just a fraction of a degree. "You have done me a service, boy. Few heroes could have accomplished as much."

"I had help, sir," Percy said. "Grover Underwood and Annabeth Chase and Yagura and-"

"To show you my thanks, I shall spare your life. I do not trust you, Perseus Jackson. I do not like what your arrival means for the future of Olympus. But for the sake of peace in the family, I shall let you live."

"Um... thank you, sir." Percy said, anxiously glancing up at the king of the gods.

"Poseidon, we shall talk about how you broke the rules in our next council meeting, on the solstice." Zeus said, glaring at his brother, he glanced to Yagura who held his gaze, he then turned to Percy once more. "Do not let me find you here when I return. Otherwise you shall taste this bolt. And it shall be your last sensation."

Thunder shook the palace, and there was a blinding light, when the light cleared, Zeus was gone.

Now, the two sires of Poseidon were alone in the room with their father, the god glanced at where his brother had been. "Your uncle," Poseidon sighed, "has always had a flair for dramatic exits. I think he would've done well as the god of theatre."

An uncomfortable silence.

"Sir," Percy said, breaking the silence with the first question he could think of "what was in that pit?"

Poseidon regarded his son, he had been sneaking a glance at his daughter and nearly winced at the glare she was sending him. The question brought him back to reality. "Have you not guessed?"

"Kronos," Percy said. "The king of the Titans."

Even in the throne room of Olympus, far away from Tartarus, the name Kronos darkened the room, made the hearth fire seem not quite so warm.

Poseidon gripped his trident. "In the First War, Percy, Zeus cut our father Kronos into a thousand pieces, just as Kronos had done to his own father, Ouranos. Zeus cast Kronos's remains into the darkest pit of Tartarus. The Titan army was scattered, their mountain fortress on Etna destroyed, their monstrous allies driven to the farthest corners of the earth. And yet Titans cannot die, any more than we gods can. Whatever is left of Kronos is still alive in some hideous way, still conscious in his eternal pain, still hungering for power."

"He's healing," Percy said. "He's coming back."

Poseidon shook his head. "From time to time, over the eons, Kronos has stirred. He enters men's nightmares and breathes evil thoughts. He wakens restless monsters from the depths. But to suggest he could rise from the pit is another thing."

"That's what he intends, Father. That's what he said."

Poseidon was silent for a long time.

"Lord Zeus has closed discussion on this matter. He will not allow talk of Kronos. You have completed your quest, child. That is all you need to do."

"As nice as this is, we need to talk." Yagura interrupted.

Poseidon sighed, but nodded his head in agreement, "very well, daughter, what is it you must ask?"

"Why are you acting like this to Percy? Why did you come to me to ask for help with him? Why were we the only ones to get good weather? Why did you ask that the others stay out of this quest? And why are we treated so differently?"

The god smiled to himself before frowning, "I cannot give you all of the answers, but I can say that you received good weather because Apollo was watching over his daughter, you happened to be there. That, and Zeus son was there, they were exempt from my brother's anger, and my own. As for asking for you to stay out of the quest… there are a lot of answers to that, but you do not need to know them, I am sorry."

"And why are we treated so differently?" Yagura asked, reminding him of the final question, he frowned slightly.

"We felt guilty." The god said, he glanced at Percy, "when we gods have children, we try to watch over them, sometimes our duties take our time away, but we always try our best. Unfortunately, the ancient laws take away most of our options for helping." He gained a faraway look, "but you… no… it is not the time. Just know that because of your… origins… we will always try to help you." He glanced sorrowfully at Percy, "even if we cannot be there for the rest of our children all the time."

Before either of the children could comment, thunder rumbled outside the temples, Poseidon gained a sour look as he looked outside.

The god stood, and grabbed his trident, his form shimmered, and he shrunk to height of a regular man, "you must go my children." He said, "but first, Percy, know that your mother has returned."

Percy stared at him, completely stunned, if you looked closely, you could see the beginnings of tears begin to form in his eyes. "My mother?" Yagura looked shocked for a moment before an unreadable expression came to her face, she turned away and moved to the throne rooms doors.

"You will find her at home. Hades sent her when you recovered his helm. Even the Lord of Death pays his debts."

"Do you... would you..." He stumbled out, he stopped and stared at the god, who smiled sadly back.

The gods expression cracked, and the demi-god could see the sadness that hid within them. "When you return home, Percy, you must make an important choice. You will find a package waiting in your room."

"A package?"

"You will understand when you see it. No one can choose your path, Percy. You must decide."

Percy nodded.

"Your mother is a queen among women," Poseidon said wistfully. "I had not met such a mortal woman in a thousand years. Still... I am sorry you were born, child. I have brought you a hero's fate, and a hero's fate is never happy. It is never anything but tragic."

Percy tried to hide the sadness from his eyes after that, his own father had basically said that he wasn't wanted. At the doors, Yagura gained a pained look, resentment soured in her eyes, she heard what the god had said and couldn't help but be reminded of her own mother.

"I don't mind, Father." Percy said after a while.

"Not yet, perhaps," Poseidon said. "Not yet. But it was an unforgivable mistake on my part."

"I'll leave you then." Percy bowed awkwardly and moved closer to his sister. "I-I won't bother you again."

When he was a few feet from her his father called out to him, "Perseus."

The boy turned.

There was a different light in his eyes, a fiery kind of pride, and he smiled at his son. "You did well, Perseus. Do not misunderstand me. Whatever else you do, know that you are mine. You are a true son of the Sea God."

He turned to Yagura and spoke in Japanese so Percy couldn't understand, "my daughter, thank you for helping your brother. Now, please, trust him. If he gives you a choice, be sure to make the right decision."

They were suddenly walking back through the city of the gods, both thought of their father's words to them. As they passed conversations stopped, the muses paused their concert. Gods, satyrs and naiads all turned toward the two demi-gods, their faces filled with respect and gratitude, and as the two of them passed, they knelt, as if they were hero's.

A few minutes later, they were back in Manhattan, Percy hailed a cab and then turned to his sister with a questioning glance.

"Umm, I'm going to go see my mom…" he trailed off, looking at his feet, "I don't suppose you want to come and meet her?"

Yagura hesitated, she glanced at her brother, she could tell he wanted the two of them to meet, but… she wasn't exactly the best at socialising with other humans. In her head she told herself that Percy was human too, but in the back of her mind the fact that he was half god made him a completely different breed. He was more than human.

Then again, when he heard she was safe, Percy's eyes seemed to light up, his posture had relaxed, and he looked much happier. Maybe this human was alight.

"I…" She glanced at Percy, he looked nervous, at the look on his face she relented, "sure, I'll come with you."

He brightened immediately, and they got into the cab, a few minutes later they were outside his mother's apartment, he knocked, and she was there. Yagura hung back as she wrapped him in a back breaking hug.

"Percy! Oh, thank goodness. Oh, my baby." She said, smiling happily, they sat there in the hall, a happy reunion, she ran her hands through his hair as the two of them cried happily.

After a few moments, she explained how she had just appeared a few hours ago in the apartment, scaring Gabe half out of his wits. She went on to say how she couldn't remember anything since the Minotaur, and couldn't believe it when Gabe told her, her son was a wanted criminal, traveling across the country, blowing up national monuments. She'd been going out of her mind with worry all day because she hadn't heard the news. Gabe had forced her to go into work, saying she had a month's salary to make up and she'd better get started.

Yagura what sounded like a growling sound, and the woman's attention turned to her, she gave Percy a look that said, 'explain,' and he did.

"… So, she came with me to deliver the bolt." Percy finished.

Sally looked dumbfounded, a myriad of emotions passed her face before it finally settled on a mix between acceptance and hurt, "she's your sister then." She said, "I-I" her voice trembled a bit and she swallowed, "sorry sweetie, I just…"

Before she could finish, a voice that none of them liked hearing, even Yagura, and it was the first time she had heard it, came from the living room. "Hey, Sally! That meat loaf done yet or what?"

The woman winced slightly, "he's not going to be happy to see you, Percy." The woman said, "there's still a manhunt going on for you, he'll probably call the cops as soon as he sees you, or…" She trailed off.

"Don't worry." Yagura said, speaking up for the first time, "we'll sort out the matter of the manhunt, it might take a while, but since you're here fine, we'll probably be able to twist it far easier."

"How?" Percy asked before his sister smirked at him.

"The mist, when we go back to camp, you can have some of the older campers mess about with the media. They'll sort everything out. I think a few of Hecate's kids can sort it if you ask nicely enough, I don't know how many are in camp, but there's probably at least someone."

"Really?"

"Yeah, now I think dad said something about a package…" Yagura then entered the apartment, Percy and Sally followed her after sharing a glance.

The apartment was a pigsty, garbage was ankle deep on the carpet. The sofa had been reupholstered in beer cans. Dirty socks and underwear hung off the lampshades. Four men sat at the table playing poker, at the sight of the young woman with green hair they looked confused, when Percy came into the picture one, that fattest dropped a cigar from his mouth, his face burned with rage.

"You got nerve coming here, you little punk. I thought the police-"

"He's not a fugitive," Yagura said, snapping her fingers she stared the fat little man in the eye, a gust of wind blew through the apartment. "He was kidnapped."

The four men gained blank looks and they stared off into space like they were hypnotised, Percy and his mother looked confused. Eventually the men snapped out of dreamland, tubby still glared at Percy, but he looked confused.

"What's going on?" He asked, the others just looked at him in confusion.

Gabe looked back and forth between the three of them, he then looked to Yagura with his small piggy eyes, before turning back to Percy. He didn't seem to think his homecoming was so wonderful if the glare was anything to go by.

"Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, Sally," he growled. "The kid ran away, as far as I care he died out on the streets, no kick him and his friend out."

"No, Gabe I-" Sally began.

He raised his eyebrows. "Did you just say 'no'? You think I'm gonna put up with this punk again? I can still press charges against him for ruining my Camaro."

"But-"

He raised his hand, and she flinched.

A look of dawning realisation appeared on Percy's face, he took a glance at his mother and then to Gabe, his eyes became pools off anger. He walked over toward Gabe, instinctively taking the pen out of his pocket.

He just laughed. "What, punk? You gonna write on me? You touch me, and you are going to jail forever, you understand?"

"Hey, Gabe," his friend Eddie interrupted. "He's just a kid."

Gabe looked at him resentfully and mimicked in a falsetto voice: "Just a kid."

His other friends laughed like idiots.

"I'll be nice to you, punk." Gabe showed his tobacco-stained teeth. "I'll give you five minutes to get your stuff and clear out. After that, I call the police."

"Counter offer." Yagura said, she pulled her staff from her back and slammed it into the ground, her face was neutral, but one look into her eyes glowed with anger. Around the room water bubbled, the facet shook, the fridge trembled and in the entire bathroom shook. "You and your friends leave, you never come back, and you never bother my brother, or his mother." Her voice was calm, but both Sally and Percy could hear anger in every syllable.

Apparently, Gabe didn't, he moved forward and came to a stop in front of the daughter of Poseidon, the stench was horrible, but Yagura schooled her features. Then the fat man laughed, "I don't think that's very nice, girly, and I don't think that's how you should treat the man of the house." He raised a hand to grab her staff, his greasy fingers didn't even come within a foot of the staff before the staff thwacked him on the head with a satisfying crunch. His nose caved, his nose suddenly going from an outie, to an innie.

For a few seconds there was silence, then Gabe screamed, he fell down to his knees and cradled his face, squealing like a stuck pig. Yagura slammed her staff into the mans ribs and he hit the table, his friends gapped at the scene and Percy was slack jawed, his mother mirroring his reaction.

"Percy." Yagura said, turning her head to face her brother, "why don't you and your mother go into your room and catch up some more." She turned to the poker buddies, "I'll keep your guests…. Entertained." She purred out that last word. "Take as long as you need."

The two of them left, identical small smirks impossible to hide as they went to Percy's room and closed the door.

Yagura turned back to the men, they were shaking in fear, one of them glanced at the staff, it wasn't hidden by the mist at the moment, they trembled at the sight of the flower stick. That was one of the reasons she chose this weapon, or at least the flower on top of it, of course there was the practical use, but she chose it just so that she could laugh when eventually people came to fear it. People stopped laughing and started screaming pretty quickly, she wasn't known for being patient after all.

"Now, I want you three," she started, pointing her staff at the trembling men at the table, "to clean this place up, if you're going to make the mess, you'd better be responsible for cleaning it up."

They froze in place, none of them seemed to be breathing, Yagura sighed before her staff arched through the air and slammed into Gabe once more, this time, instead of just hitting him, the bigger hook wrapped around his leg and lifted him off the ground, with one hand, she swung him and sent him into one of his friends. It was like bowling.

"I'm sorry, I think you believed I am asking nicely, I am neither asking, nor am I being nice about it." She said, "now get cleaning." Her voice turned to a snarl at the end.

The men scurried about the room, the one under Gabe struggled uselessly to get him off, but the man on top was very fat, and the man below was very weak. Yagura wrapped the staff around the back of the 'man of the house's' neck and stood on his feet, allowing him to rise in an arch, the man scuttled off to help his friends clean up the room.

"Now." Yagura said to the man as he started to come around, "I don't like the way you treat my brother's mom, and if my assumptions are right, I don't think I'll like how you treat my brother." Her left eye briefly glowed eerily, "so tell me, why might I have that assumption?"

"Crazy bitch, I'm going to call the cops on you, you'll be-" Yagura slammed the butt of her staff onto his hand, a soft crunch came from the limb and the man whimpered.

"Now, tell me," She said, bringing the hook to underneath one of Gabe's chins and gently lifting his head up to look her in the eye, "did you ever hurt my brother?"

Percy was taking in his options, he glanced at the box that appeared on his bed, he knew what was inside it, he had been trying to get his mom to listen, but she was hesitant. She seemed to guess what was in the box, but she seemed hesitant to use it, with good reason, for now though, he just wanted her to be free from Gabe.

"I'll leave the box," Percy said after a short silence. "If he threatens you..."

She looked pale, but she nodded. "Where will you go, Percy?"

"Half-Blood Hill."

"For the summer... or forever?" She looked so fragile, like the answer would break her.

"I guess that depends."

A silent agreement went through them as they locked eyes, they were in agreement, she kissed him on the forehead. "You'll be a hero, Percy. You'll be the greatest of all."

Percy took one last look around his bedroom, like he'd never see it again, Sally saw this and out of his sight her eyes hardened.

They walked back to get Yagura, they had expected many things, but one of them wasn't for three men to be cleaning up the room while Gabe cried his heart out on the floor. Yagura was staring down at him, a victorious smirk on her face as she stared at the pig like man grovelling and begging. She looked up as Percy entered the room with his mom.

"Done talking so soon?" She asked, somewhat disappointedly.

"Yeah, come on, they'll be expecting us at camp." Percy said.

"Right, give me a second." She then moved her hands through some patterns, at the sink some water flew out and formed a vaguely person shape, before forming into another Yagura. "She'll stay here to keep an eye on these lot, they'll clean up the room."

"Right," Percy didn't even question it, he turned to his mother who was glancing to the cowering form of Gabe, a flare of anger in her eyes, "I love you mom."

She brought him into one last hug before they parted, as Percy closed the door he saw his mother walk purposefully into his room. A small grin appeared on his face when he heard her muffled call of "Gabe, I think now would be a good time to get a photo, for good memories."

The ride back was pretty quiet for the most part, they got a taxi to take them to the border of camp, and they arrived to a bustling crowd of kids, all wanting to hear what happened on Olympus. Yagura disappeared pretty quickly, going off to find the other jinchuuriki, and Percy was gifted with traditional laurels and went to the big feast. None of the jinchuuriki showed up, according to Annabeth, they had holed themselves up in their boat since they got here, apparently, they were nervous around crowds.

The burned their shrouds, a beautiful sheet of grey silk embroidered with owls and Percy's bedsheet with a dead smiley face and the words loser (a la Ares cabin). After that, they had a sing along with s'mores and, all the campers (sans Ares cabin, who all glared at Percy) joined in, laughing and chatting away. The questers told them all about the quest, but kept out the jinchuuriki's parents, saying they just ran into them and were offered a ride.

Both the Hephaestus and Athena cabins wanted to take apart the boat to figure out how it managed to travel like it did. Of course, Percy warned them against it, saying that they would probably get shot down, maybe literally, if they tried it.

Grover got his searchers licence, the council agreed that his performance in the quest was exceptional, when they heard about the jinchuuriki being involved… well, it seemed that the satyr wasn't lying when he said they were scary to the nature population. The old goats gave him the promotion immediately, saying that any satyr who could stay near them and not freak out deserved the licence.

Chiron called in a favour with Hecate, the mortal world now thought Percy Jackson was just some poor kid who got kidnapped, he fought off the terrorist on the beach, and then, due to the trauma was brought away from the presses eye. The nation was sympathetic to the demi-god and there were apparently many well wishers who wanted him to get better soon.

As for his mother, well, she decided to sell off her first two life-sized concrete statues to a collector through an art gallery in Soho. The 'Cowards Defeat' and the 'Cowering Trio' were artistic masterpieces, many museums were now scrambling for her work, calling it the next step forward in neorealism. Unfortunately, she decided to step out of the art world, instead going on to use the money gained from her pieces to pay a deposit on a new apartment and payed for the first year's tuition at NYU.

She had wrote saying that she had disposed of the tools he had given her and that she was going back to writing. She had also said that she had put down a deposit for a spot for a private school in the city, she said that she would be happy if he wanted to move back with her but understood if she wanted to stay. At the bottom of the page she also asked if Yagura wanted to spend some time with him, she could stay over, and that she was welcome any time.

Now though, the jinchuuriki had finally mustered enough courage to leave the boat (finally in B's case) and made their way to the camp. Chiron was very understanding about their situation, and offered them a place in the cabins with their siblings, they agreed, saying it would be nice to meet new siblings.

And so, after a week they were all settled in, Chiron called a councillors meeting before it, so they could be introduced to the most senior members of the camp. He told them about the jinchuuriki valuing their privacy, warning them not to pry into their past.

"As if you could stop the princess here from being nosy." Clarisse said with a snort, Bandit sat on the ping pong table in front of her, she was senior most camper after her brother had a nasty accident with one of the mines in front of their cabin, because she was the only one outside at the time, she was the one going to the meeting until the Hephaestus cabin disarmed the rest of the mines.

"Clarisse, this is a serious matter." Chiron said warningly, "take it seriously, they are not the people to anger, you must learn to pick your fights, especially with them."

Clarisse was about to come off with a retort but he centaur stared her down, she nodded, seeming to realise the seriousness of the situation.

"Now, they will probably not be too sociable, but give them time." Chiron said, "you can come in now!" He yelled out and the door opened.

The six of them walked into the room, they looked a bit uncomfortable at the stares of the campers, but stared them down all the same. Yagura smiled at Percy who, since he was the only child of Poseidon, was the head councillor of his cabin, while Roshi nodded to Annabeth.

"Now, these are:" Chiron said, introducing them, "Roshi, son of Athena; Fu, daughter of Apollo; Yugito, daughter of Aphrodite; Hana, daughter of Hephaestus; Yagura…" He sent her a look, she understood and nodded, "daughter of Poseidon; and B," another look, another nod, "son of Zeus." The campers looked shocked at the last too, before they could speak Chiron interrupted, "fortunately, the two of them are not candidates for the prophecy, for reasons the gods have not yet informed me."

They were all silent for a moment before Percy spoke, breaking the spell, "so, she's head camper now, right?"

After that meeting, the six of them were introduced to their siblings, some were shocked (haha) at the fact that Zeus had another kid, but, after some words from their cabin leaders, didn't question it, openly anyway.

The six of them had quickly integrated quickly into their cabin's, they never said about their origins or anything, and never said anything about any powers given to them, opting to just not mention it.

At the moment, everyone was off doing their separate activities, Hana at the forges, Fu at the archery range, Roshi and Yugito in the arena, Yagura was relaxing by the beach with Percy and B was 'asserting his dominance' in the forrest. Fu was having a competition with her younger sister, whilst her two brothers watched and kept score. They were seeing who could hit the most bullseyes in a row. So, far Fu and her brothers were 'losing' to her nine-year-old sister Sarah who had seven to Fu's five.

"How are you so good at this?" Fu asked the very happy nine-year-old. Sarah, like most children of Apollo had bright blonde hair, a golden tan, and bright blue eyes, she was quite short, but she was only nine. Sarah was staying year-round as her mother recently got a better job at a hospital in San Francisco, which was suicide for Demi-gods, the Greek ones anyway. Her mother had left her here as the job was too big an opportunity to miss, though her daughter was understandably upset she agreed that it would be best to stay year-round.

She was very fond of her brothers and sisters in the cabin but especially loved her new 'best-big-sister' Fu, who, once she'd come out of her shell, helped teach her archery. She was a natural, like all children of Apollo.

"Your turn sis!" Sarah said to her sister who had zoned out, she looked back up to see the younger child of Apollo had strayed into the yellow zone on the board.

"Ha, now I'm going to catch up to you, watch this!" Fu yelled excitably, and she fired an arrow that hit the bullseye, "seven, six. I'm catching up."

"Oh yeah, well watch this!" She loosened another arrow and it hit dead centre of the target, Fu whistled in appreciation.

"Okay, my go." She let fly another arrow which just slightly strayed out of the bullseye, causing Fu to sigh and turn to her brothers, they smiled at her and she smiled back. "Okay, I give up. You are clearly the best at archery in camp, nay, the world. Dad better watch out or you'll take his title as 'most awesome archer' little lady."

Sarah giggled and blushed slightly, "don't be silly, daddy's the best archer in the world!"

"That's because he hasn't come up against someone as awesome as you." Fu said, walking over to the younger girl and rubbing her hair affectionately, which caused her to puff out her cheeks and pout angrily, this only made her cuter in Fu's eyes.

"C'mon Sarah, time for Greek with Chiron, we need to get to the big house quick." Fu said as she lifted her sister, with a happy squeal, and carried her to the big house where she left her at the front porch in front of an annoyed Mr D.

Meanwhile, at the forges, Hana was enjoying herself. She felt completely at home in the Hephaestus cabin, fires blazing, sweat dripping down her face and steam everywhere. She was in heaven. She was also making adjustments to her steam armour, something the rest of the cabin was interested in, so they decided to help out.

"So, what does it do?" asked Nyssa, a newly claimed daughter of Hephaestus.

"It uses my natural abilities with boil release to augment my strength, the furnace at the back emits steam which can add force to my attacks." Hana said.

"What's boil release?" Beckandorf asked.

"I can control steam and boiling water to attack things, but it's hard to control."

"How? I haven't heard of any demi-god being able to do that." Beckandorf said.

"It's… complicated, and unimportant. The armour isn't just for that though, it helps me, well, quite literally, vent. My body produces steam when I'm… emotional, this just helps control it."

"Okay. So, what are we doing to it?" Nyssa asked.

"Hopefully, we can shrink the furnace into a more manageable size, that thing is on its last legs anyway. Been meaning to repair it for ages. Also, I want to recreate some of it as celestial bronze, so I can actually fight monsters with it, the gauntlets and the shin guards to be specific." Hana said.

"Okay, then you may want to, you know, take it off." Nyssa said.

"Oh, yeah. Gimmie' a minute." Hana said as she went to her room. She came back wearing a facemask, hat and a jacket with the armour in her arms.

"How can you wear all those layers? It is insanely hot here, even for us." Nyssa said, eyeing the clothes she was wearing.

"Not important," she snapped, she sighed at her sisters look, "sorry, I'm not very comfortable talking about it just." Nyssa nodded in understanding and Hana smiled behind her mask, "so, Nyssa could you take a look at the shin guards, try to replicate them, Beckandorf why don't you try the gauntlets. I'll try to shrink the furnace." Hana said.

"Fine, these are very well designed by the way, a bit clunky but all things considered they're quite functional." Nyssa said, she was no-where close to letting go of the subject, she was curious, but she would drop it for now.

So, they got to work redesigning the armour, a bit at a time. Hana was struggling to make the furnace smaller, she originally made it with the scrap metal she made from anything she could get her hands on. The components on the inside constantly broke because of that, now that she had the right equipment she would make it better than ever.

Roshi dodged another slash at his face, his sister nearly tore his face off with that last attack, he then replied with a jab with his spear. She dodged to the right, so he slammed her with the butt of the spear she flew back but caught herself and positioned herself claws out and on all fours, like a cat ready to pounce. He smirked at her.

"You're going to have to do better than that." He taunted.

"Oh, you want better," she smirked, "fine." In a blur, she was in front of him, slashing madly, Roshi was barely holding up, she was very fast. She managed to make a cut at his stomach with her claws leaving four lines of blood across it, then she jumped back and smirked at her handiwork. "Is that better?" She asked with a smirk.

"I thought we agreed no chakra." Roshi said.

"I'm pretty sure that by now you should know that I don't follow the rules." Was her reply.

"Well then I guess that the rules are off then." He said and lunged at her with his spear, which was now glowing red hot. He stabbed into the ground where she once stood, an eruption of lava came where the spear touched the ground.

"I really need to get my fire back." Yugito complained.

"That sounds like defeat to me." Roshi taunted.

"Never." Yugito said and launched herself at him, he moved to the right and dodged a vicious strike that would have removed his left arm. He then stabbed the ground with his spear and Yugito suddenly found herself surrounded by a ring of molten rock, there was only a few meters for the two of them to manoeuvre about, she didn't have long to think about it though as Roshi jabbed with the spear. She found herself nearly falling into the lava, before catching her balance long enough to swipe at Roshi.

"You've lost, sis." Roshi commented. "You're trapped, and, in case you haven't noticed, the lava is starting to move inward. You can't win."

Yugito hissed like a cat and looked around her, the lava was slowly encroaching on her position, she couldn't think of a plan. "Fine, you win. Now get rid of the lava."

Roshi smirked, he then waved his hands and the lava hardened, "see, you may have won if you didn't bring chakra into the game."

"Yeah, yeah, just because your mom sorted you out with Hephaestus." She snorted, "we both know I would have won in a fair fight."

"Since when have any fights we've ever been in been fair? Either we have the advantage, or the other people do." Roshi said.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Doesn't mean I have to like." She muttered, before they both turned to the audience that had come soon after they came to the arena. It consisted of two of the younger children of Athena both were gaping at them.

"Hello?" Roshi said.

"H-how did you do that?" One of the Athena children said, he was young maybe ten or eleven and had the same blonde hair and grey eyes of all Athena children. Roshi had a weird relationship with his half siblings, after his parent was revealed, they seemed confused by him, he possessed none of the physical qualities of a normal child of Athena, but yet seemed so wise it was impossible for him not to be their brother.

For now, Roshi would play the part of an annoying big brother, "magic."

"How did you do that?" The other child of Athena, he was a bit older, thirteen and almost an exact replica of his younger brother.

"I told you, magic," Roshi was beginning to enjoy being the annoying older brother.

"That's not an answer!" The younger child of Athena huffed. "How did you really do it?"

"Fine, my spear acts like a conduit for my powers and I channel lava through it," he then gained a grin, "and as for how it works… magic." He then chuckled at their annoyed expressions.

"But how do you have power over lava, no child of Athena ever has power over lava." The thirteen-year-old said.

"Oh, well that would take too long to explain." Roshi said, "but people do that all the time where we're from, well not the spew lava, but similar things, mostly with fire, lightning, air, earth or water."

"But how?" The ten-year-old asked.

"Sorry, it would take too long to explain."

"Please, come on, you're a child of Athena, you must love teaching things." The ten-year-old said.

"Well… what's your name kid?" Roshi asked.

"I'm Malcolm, this is Harry." Malcolm introduced.

"Well then, Malcolm, me and my sister and the rest of us, come from somewhere where humans evolved to have a type of energy in them called chakra, we can use it to do things, most people deem impossible. Like breath fire, like Yugito, or well control lava."

"Wait! She can breathe fire?!" Malcolm asked.

Yugito shot him a glare, then walked over to him and whispered in his ear, "they aren't supposed to know where we come from, stop telling him things."

"It's better that they have an answer and stop guessing, they may find dangerous things if they look such as where we have been. Besides, it's not like they can learn anything."

"Fine, but be careful, don't give anything away." Yugito muttered, "I'll be watching, don't mess up."

"I won't, besides, they're family, we can learn to trust them."

She sighed, "I guess." Then moved to the side of the arena and took a seat.

Roshi turned back to the now excited child of Athena, "so, what do you want to know?"

"You said that she can breathe fire, how?" Malcolm asked.

"Yeah, well, that's the thing, see when we came here we found out that some of the gods don't take to kindly to us using their domains, so unless we get permission we can only use our parent's abilities or abilities that don't enter any of the gods domains, such as wall walking or the speed boost." Roshi said.

"Wait, you can walk on walls? How can you use lava? How did you get permission? Why are only some elements used normally?" Malcolm asked in quick succession.

"Calm down, to answer your questions, yes I can walk on walls, and water, and most surfaces; mom gave me my spear which lets me channel lava; she made a deal with Hephaestus; and there are several elements that are considered 'basic' elements, I already said what they were, air, water, earth, fire and lightning. Other elements are more complicated, they involve the mixing of the basic elements, my lava is a mix of earth and fire. Most people consider them to by impossible without a bloodline or… other circumstances, but theoretically it is possible to mix elements, it's just really hard."

"You met mom?" Malcolm asked and Roshi felt sorry for the kid, none of these kids had healthy relationships with their parents, it was sad.

"Yeah, she gave me my spear and my hat, she made a deal with Hephaestus about my lava release and needed to inform me of it."

"What's she like?" Malcolm asked, and Roshi could see Harry was also interested.

"Well, I only talked to her for a few minutes, she was… brief? She acts an awful lot like most of her children, she had this look in her eye as well, it was like she knew everything."

"Wow." Malcolm said and after a long pause he spoke up again, "could you teach me to do that?" He said a bit nervously.

"Sorry, it's not something you can do, you need to be born with a working chakra system." Roshi said.

"Okay." He said sadly.

"But, I can teach you some other stuff." Roshi said with a grin.

"Like what?" Malcolm asked, the thought of learning chakra having disappeared at the thought of learning something else.

"Well, I could teach you how to fight unarmed." Roshi said.

"Really?" Harry asked, he too seemed happy to learn.

"Sure, now, how would the two of you like to learn the monkey fist?"

Yugito walked away from the arena, she was now bored, she had nothing to do, Roshi was now busy teaching his siblings to fight. Maybe she could do what he was doing and teach something to her younger siblings, she had talked with a few of her half-brothers and sisters and they seemed alright, if a bit… odd. All they cared about was fashion and gossip and looks, this was alien to Yugito, she was a ninja, a kunoichi, a weapon. Weapons don't care how they look, so long as they do their job.

That's not to say that she didn't care how she looked, now that she was free of the shackles of her village, she had become more aware of things she wouldn't have cared for in the past. She took pride in her appearance, and not to sound vain but she knew she was beautiful. Unfortunately, she was raised to be a weapon of mass destruction, from the start she was trained to fight, to kill, to destroy. Just because Kumo was nicer to their jinchuuriki doesn't mean that they were treated like normal people, in Kumo they were recognised as weapons, as a defense.

B was lucky he was the Raikage's brother, Yugito was raised with very little time to herself, she was either training, sleeping or eating. Weapons don't play. It was one of the first lessons she learned as a child, at least from the shinobi of her village, the jinchuuriki, her family, they played with her, that was why she was thankful to them, they treated her like a human, like a person.

This was why she didn't understand how her siblings could care so much about their appearance or their perfume or who was dating who. She would however try, she would try to connect with her siblings, she would help them, and she would let them keep their naive view of the world. She wouldn't want them to have to live a life like hers, they deserved to have a childhood.

As she neared the cabin she saw her siblings sitting just outside their cabin, somewhere she would never normally be comfortable entering, in fact that was part of the reason she hadn't been sleeping in it. She had stayed on the boat, up until now, after seeing Roshi with his siblings she decided to get closer to hers, now to go into the monstrosity, the things she does for family. The four of them were all girls, Aphrodite's children were usually female, there were a few boys, but most were girls. One of them looked vaguely familiar, she had brown hair and blue eyes, and looked about the same age as Yugito, the others were younger; one twelve, she had red hair and green eyes; one was blonde with blue eyes and looked about thirteen; the last one had dark black hair and brown eyes and looked Asian, she could have only been ten.

"Hey." She said as she approached.

"Hey," the older one said, she must have been cabin counsellor for now anyway.

The younger one looked at her for a few minutes before seeming to conclude, "you're one of the weirdos who lived on the boat."

"Drew!" The older one said.

"But she is." Drew complained.

"You don't say things like that to people." She said. "Sorry about her, I'm Selina councillor for the Aphrodite cabin." She introduced.

"Selina?" The jinchuuriki pondered for a moment, the name sounded familiar, and she looked kind of familiar too, though that was hard to guess sometimes, her siblings could change their appearance on a whim. Finally, she placed her, "you were in New York, weren't you? I killed a hellhound and then we talked." Yugito said, remembering the young girl who she found on her first day in this world.

"Yugito?" Selina asked and Yugito nodded, Selina broke into a grin, "it's good to see you again."

"Yeah. So… you're my sister." She said awkwardly.

"Yeah, welcome to the family." Selina announced, and invited Yugito to sit down and join them

"Thanks." Yugito said.

"This is Philippa," Selina indicated to the redhead, "Alissa," she indicated the blonde, "and Drew, our budding charm speaker." Selina said happily, indicating to Drew, she smirked happily at the praise.

"Charm speaker?" Yugito asked.

"A gift from mom." Drew said smugly, "I can get people to do what I want just by asking."

"Really? Seems interesting, so does mom usually give the ability to control people out to her kids?" Yugito asked, not particularly liking the sound of that, it sounded too much like something the Uchiha tried to use.

"No, it's super rare, I'm the only one who can do it, or at least with any power." Drew said smugly, "any of us can charm speak mortals, unless they have a particularly strong will. Must mean I'm the favourite."

Selina sighed at that, "so, I see you found your siblings, quite a lot of them."

"Yeah, all except Naruto." Yugito muttered.

"Naruto? You mean that stuff you put on ramen? That's bad for you, makes you fat." Drew said.

"No, Naruto's my brother, we lost him on the way here, we've been searching for him ever since we found out he was missing, well after learning the language." Yugito said.

"What do you mean learn the language?" Alissa asked.

"English isn't our first language, we speak a variation on what you call Japanese. We had to learn English." Yugito explained.

"Really?" Drew asked, "dad taught me some before… before he left me here." Drew looked sad.

Yugito felt sorry for her, there seemed to be a very important lesson in the campers here, the gods tend to pick bad lovers. Not that they were necessarily bad people, it's just that they just didn't tend to be the best of parents, an example of this is Aphrodite's choice in lovers, they tended to be either models or movie stars who normally didn't have time for their kids. Now, some of them could be great parents, but living in the paparazzi's spotlight tended to leave children in an uncomfortable position.

"Well," Yugito began, "then I guess that means you get to be my awesome little Imouto-chan." Yugito said with a grin that Drew reciprocated.

"Then you're going to be my Nee-chan!" Drew said.

"Sure." Yugito's grin never fell from her face.

"So, what does your brother look like, Naruto, I mean?" Philippa asked, finally speaking up.

Yugito sighed, "it's complicated." She finally said, "he is blonde, tan skin with Whisker marks on his cheeks, and has bright blue eyes, but…" Yugito trailed off.

"But what? He sounds pretty good looking. How did he get Whisker marks though?" Alissa said.

"He was born with them, and he was pretty good looking, from what I understand anyway." Yugito said, a sad sigh escaping her.

"Was?" Philippa asked.

"There was… an incident, and his body was scarred, it was our fault. The last time I saw his face he had scars everywhere." The four girls looked horrified at that, "he wore a cloak and a mask to cover it up. He mightn't have them anymore though."

"How did he get the scars, and what do you mean he mightn't have them?" Selina asked.

"He got them… he mightn't have them because an incident that happened on our way here." They noticed the fact that she ignored the first question. "Lady Artemis brought here to America, but something happened, and we were split up. Turns out there were side effects to our choice of travel and we looked different to before, mostly just small things, like hair length." Yugito lied, they didn't need to know about her actual age, besides, it wasn't an actual lie, her hair was shorter, if only a bit.

They were silent for a bit, before Alissa spoke up, "how are you related anyway, it's not like you could have the same father, the big one is a daughter of Hephaestus, and I don't think anyone could survive birthing nine demi-gods, besides you all look different."

"Well, we aren't any more related than you are from the Hephaestus cabin, but we share a certain… situation, we bonded over that, and we act like a family." Yugito explained.

"What situation?" Drew asked.

"It's complicated." Yugito said.

"We have loads of time." Drew said.

"It's complicated and personal." Yugito said.

"But-" Drew began.

"Drew, don't pry into people's personal business." Selina said, a stern glance was sent her way.

"Fine." Drew said.

"So… you're not actually related?" Alissa asked.

"No, why?" Yugito asked.

"Well, I was wondering if your brother has a girlfriend, the one with the tattoos." Alissa asked.

"No, at least I don't think so, but I don't think I'm comfortable with that happening." Yugito said with a glare.

"Oh, come on sis, don't try to stop love." Alissa said nervously at the glare.

B had told his siblings he was going into the forest to 'assert his dominance' and they believed him, pfft, they actually thought he would go into the forest and fight everything there until they respected him, to become the alpha. Maybe it was because he did that on turtle island that took him months, to prove, and then years to make sure the animals knew it. They actually thought that he would be doing that here, now? No, that was the first thing he did when he got here, they actually thought he would have left it so late, ha.

No, the reason he was out now was more personal, it was something he had been meaning to do ever since he heard the story of the last child of Zeus. He was going to be doing something to acknowledge, in his opinion, the bravest of his now dead siblings.

He had made it to where he wanted to go, going through the forest to avoid suspicion made the journey longer. He was finally here.

He stared at the tree, the great pine tree of Thalia Grace.

"Hey, yo, lil sis

This yo bro so don dis

Wish I could have met you

Known ya lil sis, too

Since you turned to a tree

I guess your one lil sis I ain't gonna see

But I just wanna tell ya, so ya know

I wish I could have been an awesome bro

Even though we never gonna meet

Fo my lil sis I made dis beat

Just so ya know that your bro

Loves ya lots, yo

So fo now, I guess it's see ya

My lil sis, Thalia."

B finished up, and ignored the tears escaping his eyes, he didn't want anyone to see him like this, when he heard that there was another child of Zeus, he was so happy.

He was excited, he wanted to teach his little sister everything he knew, he wanted a little sister to spoil, he never got that chance with the other jinchuuriki. He just sat there, staring at the remains of his sister, he cared for her, even if he had never met her, he hoped that Kurama was right. He hoped that the theory for Naruto's jutsu was right, then she'd live, that if one fox dies they all do. As morbid as it was, he would get to meet his sister someday.

 **A/N: Before anyone says anything, the last part is from my Sea of Monsters story, I think I said in another A/N that I was speeding up the story, this is probably the only part that you will see since I haven't updated that story in ages. By the way, you can all consider that story to be completely out now, once I get back to it, I'll be deleting those first few chapters since they now make no sense. If you haven't read them you can go ahead and read them before I take them down, you'll probably have no idea what's going on if you haven't read the original story, but it's up to you. I'm not sure when the next update will be, but it might be a week or two. See you then and thanks for reading.**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Okay, this is the final chapter of the lightning thief, I'll be back with the sea of monsters soon, so don't worry. For now, I hope you enjoy.**

Whiskers stared at the silver cabin, glowing softly in the moonlight. He had been doing that a lot lately, he hadn't explained anything to Annabeth yet, or Bandit, he would have to do that. He had a feeling Annabeth already knew, she looked at him sadly whenever she thought he wasn't looking, some nights he just wanted to come clean. Right now, as far as he could see, he had two choices, become Naruto, or run away.

Neither of the two were particularly good, running away would mean he would be hunted down by the best hunters in the Greek world, losing Annabeth and the closest thing he could call a home. No, running wasn't an option now. He sighed to himself, resigned to do what needs to be done, he turned his gaze away from the silver cabin, his mother's cabin.

With a sigh he made his way passed the Ares cabin, watching his step, the problem with the mines had been solved, but the fox wasn't too sure if the Ares campers wouldn't be stupid enough to do it again. Finally, he was in front of a hole in the ground, he waited patiently for the other fox to come out, he knew he was there, and the other fox knew he was there, but he also knew that he knew he knew he was there.

"Alright, come out." He called to the other fox, trying to stop himself from gaining a migraine.

"Fine, what do you want?" The other fox whispered, popping his head out of the den.

"Well, first off, did you look after her?"

"Her?" Bandit asked, "oh, the owl? Yeah, she's very nice, a good listener."

"Good, well, that's one thing." Whiskers sighed, he was worried the other fox would abandon her, or worse eat her, not that he had to, he was him… man that will confuse him in the future.

"Are there other things?"

"Yes, I found out what we are."

Bandit perked up, he exited the den, revealing that he had an owl riding on his back, her claws holding onto his back. She seemed to be sleeping, Bandit was using his tail to steady her every time she shifted too far, making sure she didn't fall. "Really, well that's interesting. So, what are we?"

"A demi-god."

Bandit paused to look at him, he tilted his head slightly, signifying his confusion, "right, we're demi-gods, and who's our godly parent? Artemis?"

"Yes, and I said demi-god, not demi-gods."

The fox scoffed, "you've been out of camp to long, must have taken something, it's messing with your head."

"I'm not lying, the six people who came here in the boat, they know us, knew us, knew us before we became separate."

"Separate, I am Bandit" The fox sounded annoyed, "I am not you, and you are not me, we are not the same, we may look the same and-"

"Naruto."

"… What's a Naruto?"

"You know already, you know what it is, who he is."

"I don't know what you're talking about, you sound like that green haired woman."

"Yagura, you know her."

"Shut up." He whispered.

"You don't remember but you somehow know."

"Shut up." Louder, the owl on his back roused and fluttered off him, chirping in confusion.

"Garra, Yugito, Yagura, Roshi, Hana, Utakata, Fu, B-"

"Shut up!" The fox roared, and lunged at his clone, the clone was surprised, and didn't move fast enough, the now bigger fox bit down on Whiskers throat, but the fox twisted, Bandit only managed to bite down on the shoulder. The second his teeth made contact, the world exploded into silver.

Images flooded his colours and shapes moving about to fast to keep track of, there was a warmth, he felt someone nearby. He tried to look up, all he could see was red, a curtain of red constantly swaying with the breeze, there was a muffled noise, someone was speaking, the words were garbled and unrecognisable. He felt safe, warm, comfortable, he gurgled happily to himself… wait what?

Suddenly the warmth was gone, the red was replaced with green, there was a bright yellow light and he was suddenly cold. He cried he wanted the warmth back. Wind cut at his face, unforgiving as he was thrown into this world of green, there was a loud familiar voice, then another. They were yelling, but he still couldn't make out what they were saying, then the cold tore through him, it was like he had been stabbed, an icy dagger through his back. He screamed.

Then it got even worse, it felt like lava was seeping into his stomach, tearing through him, battling the cold. At the moment it was hard to tell which was worse, the cold or the burning. Finally, it stopped, the cold disappeared and the burning with it, he was shuffled about, moved by someone else.

There were more garbled words, maybe two people, there was a pause for a bit, before one of the voices spoke once more. Then he felt the warmth again, his cries ceased, and his eyes opened again, the red was back, the comfort returned to him once more. Happiness ignited within him again, he grabbed at some of the red curtain, but it was just out of reach, the voice stopped speaking.

Then there was silence. There was no one now. He was alone.

The red was still there but there was something wrong. Fear gripped him, he screamed, his wails echoing around reverberating and inevitably returning to him alone. Finally, someone showed up, he wailed, even as someone picked him up, he opened his eyes again and the haze of colours disappeared for a moment.

A bright silvery orb stared down at him, giving off a divine light as he looked, the orb glowed even brighter as he stared at it, and then the world glowed in that same light. Silver overtook his vision, a face appeared in front of him, blonde hair tumbled over her shoulder as grey eyes peered at him. She couldn't have been any older than six or seven, she was muddy and covered in grime, her eyes looked wild and there was fear on her face. He felt like he should have known her.

Suddenly her face faded into the silver light, another face appeared, an older looking girl, thirteen or fourteen maybe. She had stringy brown hair and sneered at him for a second before that faded and she laughed a mocking laugh, she moved her hand closer to him but then froze, before she too faded into the light.

""What's going on"" He asked, but his voice came out weird. It was like listening to twins speaking in unison, but creepier, mostly because both voices seemed to come from him.

""Where am I?""

The light appeared again, this time a girl with mint green hair appeared, a blonde beside her, they were laughing with each other, then in unison they turned to him. Who were they? As a matter of fact who was he?

This time when he spoke he spoke over himself, "who are you?" "Who am I?" He turned around, desperate to find the source of the voice, when he turned back the girls were gone.

A boy appeared, he wore a scowl and had a tattoo on his head, ""it's not a tattoo."" He said to himself, ""it's a scar.""

How did he know that? What was going on?

Before he could answer more people appeared, a man in his forties with a bright red beard, a woman with blonde hair and a diamond on her forehead, three women in masks. They just kept appearing, he didn't know any of them, they all sat there, staring at him.

""Who are you?!"" He yelled, and like that the people vanished into the silver.

"Hmm," another voice said, he felt fear, for no reason, he just knew to be afraid at the voice, the silver disappeared, darkness consuming it, "interesting, but no, I'm not ready yet." He looked around, his eyes darting trying to locate the voice, but it reverberated around the… wherever he was. Before he could think more the voice spoke again, "but this is far too interesting for me not to take advantage of."

""Who are you?"" He asked, but the voice just chuckled.

"All in due time, for now though, I guess this will have to wait. Don't worry though, you'll come to me soon enough," the voice was suddenly right behind him, he felt two hands pressing on each shoulder, "for now, I think it would be better to spend some time apart."

The world exploded into pain, it felt like he was being torn apart, a dark thought entered his mind as he likened this to the life of Christmas cracker. Pulled at for a while before: POP!

Then the world faded to black.

(New Rome)

Temari had been trying to find her brother all day, desperately trying to find him before he made things worse. By now it was very likely that the whole camp knew what the boundary god had said, and people would be in a bad state of confusion. This was going to be hell for her to fix, and the longer it took to find Garra, the worse it got.

After painstakingly searching through the barracks, the armoury, and the fields of Mars she finally made her way to temple hill. She found him in their mother's temple, it stood right next to the temple of Jupiter but wasn't nearly as big. The temple to Juno was, however, perhaps the most beautiful of all the temples, marble flooring with huge arches held the domed ceiling. Like many temples, there were no proper walls, the arches being about as close as you could get, however, this temple did boast some privacy. Curtains fell in between the arches, purple and gold, purple and gold backgrounds depicted Juno, her symbols, her animals and a few pictures of her and her husband.

The whole temple should have been dark, with the curtains blocking out all of the natural light, but it wasn't, no one knew why, but the room was almost always bright, most attributed it to the statue. It depicted the goddess Juno holding her lotus staff and wearing her traditional cloak of a goat skin, there was a stern look on her face.

But there was a reason why many called this the most beautiful temple, and it was because of what the temple was usually used for, marriage. It may not have been the traditional church every demi-god who grew up outside the city would dream of, but there was no doubt there was anywhere else to sanctify a marriage in. Because of this, the room had been made to fit a huge congregation, making use of the space, the statue was the only furniture in the room, allowing them to bring in the benches to sit in. It also made for a nice dance floor if the couple chose to have the reception in the temple, not that many did.

It was here that Temari found her brother, sitting at the foot of their mother's statue, he was hunched over leaning on the steps at the base of the statue. His hair covered his eyes and his gourd was by his side, within reach, on top of it was the shield his mother had gifted him.

The demi-goddess slowly made her way over to her brother, he knew she was here, they were both ninja for most of their lives, so there was no point in trying to be silent. She slowly knelt down in front of him, he didn't even move to acknowledge his presence, for a moment she did nothing. Then she reached around and wrapped her little brother into a hug, his head nestled in her shoulder, her head leaning on his.

She began to hear quiet sobs coming from him and simply held him tighter.

He finally moved, shifting around until he was looking up into her eyes, teal eyes red from the tears. For a moment he just stared at her, before he moved around and hugged her, burying his face into her shoulder. He continued to sob and she just sat there and held him, doing something she should have been doing long before now. She was being there for him, she would never let what happened back in Suna happen to her brother, her eyes hardened at the thought, her soldiers acting like the shinobi and civilians had.

She shook away the thought and simply concentrated on her brother, she softly rocked him as he sobbed. Eventually she hummed a soft tune she remembered her mother singing when she was younger, the faintest memory of the woman before she was revealed to be a goddess coming to the surface.

Time passed and they sat there, Garra's tears eventually dried but he still clung to her.

Eventually they broke away and Temari looked her brother in the eye, they didn't speak, just sat there in silence, neither knowing what to say. It was Temari who finally broke the silence:

"You're not a monster." She softly whispered, "Terminus is wrong. You are my brother, a son of Juno and mother is proud of you." She put a hand to his shoulder, "I'm proud of you."

Garra was silent for a long time, when he did speak it was barely a whisper, "he's right though."

"Garra-"

"No," he raised his voice slightly, "I am a monster."

"That's not true!" Temari said.

Garra pulled away from her, moving a few steps away and turning from her, "I know what I am, what I've always been."

"No, you-"

"I'm a killer, I butchered people, so many people." He said, "I don't even know how many."

"We were ninja, we were meant to be killers."

"No, ninja kill for their village, or for money, or their family. No, I have never cared about Suna, what use have I got for money, and my family… I was prepared to abandon you, I left you for years."

"You were searching for Naruto." Temari said, trying to ignore the lump in her throat, "he is your… he's your family too."

"Naruto." Garra whispered, "Naruto. I hurt him the most, he suffered for me." He sounded broken, hollow. "I lied to him, tricked him, hurt him so much." He whispered.

"Garra." Temari said, moving closer to her brother, "it wasn't your fault."

"You don't know anything." Garra hissed, "you didn't see him. what we did to him. What I did to him."

"You're making amends, you're trying to fix it though." She grabbed him by the shoulder, "that's something human." She turned him around, "not something a monster would do."

"Something a monster would do…" Garra trailed off, he looked to the side, his eye caught on his gourd and something flashed within his eyes. He turned back to his sister and looked her in the eye, "I've done so many things a monster would do." He pulled away from her again, walking to the other side of the room.

"Garra-"

"I tortured nine people on the way here." He said. "nine mortals."

Temari froze, "Garra, what do you-"

"They attacked me and Utakata, I didn't just kill them though, no, I tore them apart slowly, tore their limbs apart, ripped apart their flesh, I destroyed them." He said, a strange hint of something in his tone as he spoke, "and I enjoyed it." He whispered.

"W-what are you talking about?" Temari silently cursed herself for stuttering.

"The mortals, they screamed, two of them were married." Garra snorted, "till death do us part."

"Garra." Temari she moved forward and put a slightly shaking hand on his shoulder.

"That's something a monster would do, right?" He turned around to face her again, tears streaming down his face.

Temari didn't hesitate, she moved forward and hugged him again, before quickly pulling him away, both hands on his shoulders, she stared him straight in the eye and spoke seriously, "Garra, you are not a monster. Have you regretted it?" He nodded slowly, "then you are not a monster. Monsters don't care, they feel no guilt, that guilt is important, that guilt makes you human."

"But I-"

"Even if you were a monster, I'd be there for you. You are my brother, I won't lose you again, no matter what." She then brought him back into a hug, "if anyone's the monster here it's me. For so long I let you be hurt, I let you suffer for years. I won't ever do that again."

(Later)

The legion was once again assembled, Temari stood in front of them once more, now dreading this, she had spent most of the day with Garra in the temple so had missed the senate entirely. Now though was her only chance to convince the legion that Terminus was wrong, that would not be no easy feat.

"Romans." She said, after the attendance was done, "I know many of you may have heard the rumours about what happened today with my brother and Terminus." There were a few murmurs, so she took that as a yes, "you deserve to know the truth of the matter, it would not do to have false rumours being the source of your information."

More mummers, she glanced around and found the smirking face of the troublesome legacy of Mercury.

"My brother does not contain a titan," the murmurs became louder, "no, what Terminus said is incorrect, but there is some truth to it. Where we come from they are known as the bijuu, Garra carries the one tailed tanuki, Shukakau." More confused murmurs, "that does not make much sense to any of you, the bijuu do not appear in any myth, the only source of information about them is with us, and the gods, but I will not lie, neither I nor Kankuro know much about them. Garra is the only one here able to contact them in any way."

The whispers had become full blown chatter by now, in a single movement Temari removed her fan from her back and slammed the butt of it on the ground. The legion silenced.

"But, the bijuu have no connection to the titans, beside their origins. They were born of a primordial god." There was silence, even the smirking legacy of Mercury was silenced, "I am not sure of the exact details, but, Terminus confirmed this. This is why he called them titans, but they are not in any allegiances with any of the titans."

With this her speech was entered, the legion went for dinner, chatting to each other about the whole situation. Temari took a seat and Kankuro immediately sat beside her.

"Are you crazy?" He hissed, "you told them about Shukaku."

"They knew he was hiding something, I gave them a name that is useless to them, and more things that are meaningless. They don't know about the bijuu remember, from my speech, without any knowledge of the bijuu, what would you have learned?"

Kankuro looked surprised for a moment before he scowled, "someone will catch on."

"I know, but we have time to think now, with all the gossip going around people will look for more information regardless. I'm saving the important stuff for Garra to speak with anyone about," she turned and levelled him with a glare, "and you will too, they don't need to know anything about Shukaku or Garra."

"Still, you're playing a dangerous game." Kankuro muttered.

"I know, I never would have guessed that Terminus would have acted the way he had."

"I know." Kankuro took a sip of water, "the trial has been postponed until we can figure out where it will be held by the way."

Temari was silent, staring ahead of her in annoyance.

"Where is Garra anyway?"

"Mom's temple, he said he'd spend the night there."

"He can't stay there for ever."

"I know, but he doesn't want to be near anyone now."

"Well, well," they turned and found Germanicus smirking at them, "it's so good to hear how your brother isn't in league with the titans." His tone was dripping with sarcasm, "good thing too, I can imagine such a thing would not be good for one's chances at Praetor." He smirked at Kankuro.

"No, they wouldn't," Temari gritted out, "what are you doing here Germanicus?"

"Why Praetor, why so hostile," he gave an expression of false shock, "I'm merely searching for answers for the legions questions."

"Well, it's a shame I won't be able to give you any, since you're such a man of the people, why don't you go and tell them that yourself?" Temari said.

"Well, well Praetor, keeping information from the legion?"

"No, I'm just not willing to spread misinformation, as I said before, I am not as familiar with this as my brother. Since I'm not as sure as him, I'll make sure I'm not wrong."

"Why don't we ask him then, where is he?" His tone was cheerful, but there was an undertone that any demi-gods instincts would tell them is bad.

"He's resting at the moment." Temari said.

"I'm sure he could spare some time for the legion."

"He will, as soon as this mess is figured out, but you must understand something." Temari stood up, "it is his secret to tell, and no one will bother him about it."

The boy's cheerful façade faded, "is that a threat?"

"No." Temari turned and walked away, turning her head back to the boy, "not yet."

"Sis, where are you going?" Kankuro asked.

"I'm not hungry anymore, I'm going to seek guidance from our mother." Temari said, leaving the mess hall.

"Kankuro." Germanicus began, a smug grin on his face, "I think I overheard something from Timothy, he said he might be thinking of changing his vote to another party." The son of Juno scowled, "your brother seems to be useful for something after all."

"Shut it." Kankuro growled, scowling at the legacy of Mercury.

"I don't think he was alone though, I heard a few people talking about rethinking who they were voting for, Johnathan, Hannah, Sarah… such a shame, don't you think?" He said with a smirk.

Kankuro snarled and glared at the boy, "I said zip it."

"No, I think you asked me to 'shut it' maybe you're having problems with English again, I wonder where you're from, hmm, you and your sister never revealed it. For all the camp knows, you're a Graecus." He sneered the word like it was a slur, and to many of the campers here it was.

Kankuro slammed his hand down on the table, spider weds spread from his fist as the table made a crunching noise. The entire mess hall was silent, all of them staring at the two of them, Kankuro seemed to realise this and blushed slightly, he stood up to walk away.

"I guess I was right," the legacy said, "you're not much without your sister to hold your hand for you."

Kankuro turned and slammed his fist into the boy's face, a satisfying crack coming from his jaw, the boy hit the floor and didn't get up. Kankuro scowled at the unconscious boy and then looked up at the entire legion, he turned and left, leaving a broken table, a broken jaw and a broken silence.

(In Los Angeles)

The three children of Hades arrived in the 'city of angles' much quicker than the eldest anticipated. The cabbie had them there in a matter of hours. So now they were standing Now though, came the real challenge, asking someone for directions. Yeah, funny thing, the city was huge, and he only had an address and L.A. to go by, not exactly the best directions to go with.

"Should we ask someone?" Bianca asked.

"Probably." Utakata sighed out.

"Then come on!" Nico was getting impatient.

Utakata nervously shifted around a bit, he brought his hands to his pipe and clenched it in his hands, "umm, could you ask?"

"What? But you're the oldest." Bianca pointed out.

"Yeah, but…" The older boy looked away, "never mind."

He walked over to an elderly couple and asked them a question while his brother and sister talked:

"He's acting weird." Nico said.

"Nico." Bianca sent him a look, "don't be mean, he's trying to help."

"Yeah, but he is weird." The youngest said.

"Just because he doesn't want to ask directions, doesn't mean he's weird."

"Yeah, but if this is his home how doesn't he know where it is, he's acting like he's never even been there."

Bianca thought for a moment before frowning to herself, "you're right, we'll ask him."

"He also acts really weird around other people." Nico said.

"Maybe he just doesn't like talking to people." Bianca suggested.

"Yeah, but he-"

Just then Utakata came back, "okay, we have our directions, now let's hope they're right. There's a bus in about twenty minutes and the stops only a few minutes away, let's go."

"Okay," the two younger children chimed.

They walked on down before they found their bus stop and took a seat, they weren't alone, three young men and a thirty-year-old woman with a kid who looked about four or five. They were quiet for a minute before Nico spoke up:

"How do you not know where your home is?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Utakata asked in confusion, "it's not my home, I've never been there." His two younger siblings looked shocked but before they could come to their own conclusions he spoke again, "it was our father's will, he gave the house to us."

Bianca's face scrunched up in confusion, "don't you mean in our fathers will?"

Utakata looked surprised, "yeah, sorry."

"So, you haven't been here before?" Nico asked.

"No, I'm as new to this as you are." He admitted.

They sat in silence until the bus came to a stop, the people pilled in, and the children of Hades followed, a short and silent trip later they were in Granada hills. Now they just needed to figure out where their house was, all things considered, they narrowed it down quite a bit.

After some walking and asking three separate people for directions they finally came across the right house. The neighbourhood looked quiet, even if there was a large amount of people wondering around, they were keeping to themselves, that was good. Their house wasn't too, big, or too small, it was a bungalow with a large driveway, there was a small garden with a few dead plants in it. There house itself was made of pale grey brick, nothing too fancy, but it was liveable.

"Looks like we're here." Utakata said, walking to the door and opening it, it wasn't locked, inside it looked surprisingly comfortable and warm. Which was strange since all the walls were painted a dark grey, the floors were tiled with mahogany wood and there was a small chandelier dangling down from the ceiling.

The three of them stood around for a bit before Utakata spoke up, "well, go on, you two go and pick your rooms, I'll go check out the rest of the house." The two of them rushed off deeper into the house while Utakata chuckled, he could hear Nico happily cheer as he claimed his room.

"Well, now let's find what was left for us." He muttered to himself before wondering into the kitchen.

The kitchen was amazing, black tiled floors gleamed in the artificial light of the much larger chandelier that hovered over a teak table big enough for six. The counters were matt black and the cupboards were the same mahogany of the floors outside, the hob matched the colour of the tiles while the cooker gleamed a contrasting silver.

On the table was a letter addressed to the resident jinchuuriki, it was written in Japanese, and though it had been a while, he managed to get the gist of the letter:

'Top shelf'

Let it be said that the lord of the dead wasn't one for beating around the bush. When the eldest child of Hades looked on the top shelf he found three leather briefcases, each nearly the same length as he was tall and about as wide. He took them down and opened the first one, the word Nico was written in bronze in the inside of the top, a sword lay in the case made of a metal so dark the entire room seemed to dim.

He shut the case, he would save it for his brother to check out, before moving onto the next case, upon opening it he smiled. His name was in the same font as Nico's, he noticed the note written to him first, it read:

'I'm not sure what weapon you prefer to use, but I think I remember seeing the people of your old village using them a lot, the second gift is to make up for not being able to use your original pipe, it should help with your powers.'

He smiled when he saw the short sword, a tanto, he hadn't used on in years, but the village forced all ninja to at least be competent in using the weapon. It was made of the same black material as Nico's blade, the handle was wrapped in a soft black cloth and there was no guard.

When he grasped the handle it felt just right, like a limb, like a good sword should feel like. He smiled happily to himself but froze when he glanced back into the case. With trembling hands, he grasped the other item in there and removed a pipe, almost identical to his own, the material being the only difference, it was made of the same material as both sons of Hades' swords, the shadows grew longer in the kitchen as he held it.

He fumbled a bit, before bringing the cold metal to his lips and blowing gently, just the same as he had with the original pipe. There was a strange sensation a tug in his gut, almost identical to the feeling of using chakra, but… different, stronger, more refined.

Instead of a clear bubble coming out, a shadowy bubble came out, it floated in the air for a minute before dissipating into the original shadow of the room. A small smile came to the son of Hades face.

"Utakata!" A voice came from further in the house, the jinchuuriki put the sword back into the case and put all three back on the top shelf before Bianca walked in, "hey, we've picked our rooms, your's is the one closest to the front door, mine's beside yours and Nico's is on the other side." She took notice of the pipe in his hand, "what's that?"

He smiled to her happily, "just something left here for me, from dad."

Bianca looked surprised before she smiled softly, "nice, what is it?"

"A pipe." He smiled.

She looked shocked, then annoyed, "you're not allowed to smoke!"

(Camp Half-blood)

The quiet night had been interrupted by an explosion of silver from behind the Ares cabin, campers rushed to the source of it, Ares cabin at the front of the line. In two minutes, the majority of the campers, the jinchuuriki, and Chiron were gathered around a glowing silver light, none of them approached but had their weapons at the ready.

The senior councillors shooed away most of the younger kids, until only the cabin leaders and more senior cabin members were there. Percy was absent, but the campers chalked that up to him sleeping through it, he was a very deep sleeper.

Suddenly Clarisse seemed to realise something, "that's Bandit's den!" She shouted out.

Fu looked surprised before she closed her eyes, a few seconds later she opened them and turned to the others, "it's the foxes, they're… they're combining!"

The campers turned in alarm to the jinchuuriki, Clarisse, Annabeth and Luke being the most concerned.

"What do you mean?!" Clarisse asked.

"They're combining together, becoming one, merging… I don't have many more words for it." Fu explained.

"But why?" Luke asked, "what the hell is going on?"

"They aren't foxes." Roshi said, "well, they are, but they weren't always foxes, they used to be one human, a demi-god. He split himself up to keep himself alive, the pieces became foxes."

"How-" Luke began, a strange gleam in his eye.

"What the hell do you mean they're not foxes?!" Clarisse said, seeming to only grasp onto that one part of the conversation, "they are foxes, Bandit is my – is a fox!"

"Yes, but, he's also a demi-god, trying to fix himself back together." Fu said, "Naruto's trying to come back."

"Who the hell is Naruto!?" Clarisse yelled.

"He's… something's wrong." Fu said, turning to the light once more, the light was tinted slightly grey now and was starting to grow dimmer.

"What? What's happening?" Annabeth sounded distraught.

"I… I don't know," Roshi said, "something's happened, they aren't merging anymore, their splitting apart again."

"That's good, why would Bandit want to join with-" Clarisse began but was stopped by a glare from Fu.

"No, it's not, he's being torn apart, picture losing your arm, then having it sewed back on only for it to be torn off immediately." Fu said, "but it's worse, it's tearing him apart everywhere."

"B-but… stop it then!" Clarisse yelled.

"We can't, no one can." Roshi said, grimacing.

Everyone was silent for a minute, finally the light disappeared and there was darkness. There was a light whimpering sound coming from the place where the light had been, Clarisse and Annabeth sprinted in sync to grab one of the foxes. They each lifted them up and checked for injuries, not that there were any.

The clearing was silent for a minute before the two girls moved back, both headed back to the cabins with a fox in their arms. No one said a word, not knowing what to say to anyone, finally everyone dispersed. Chiron told the jinchuuriki to come with him to the big house to explain everything to him.

They agreed and a few minutes later, the jinchuuriki were explaining everything, from their arrival to this world, to the quest that led them here. The immortal centaur knew about the Roman camp and paled slightly when they admitted they had been there, but didn't say anything. When they were done he simply sighed and said:

"I'll try and help as much as I can, I'll ask the satyrs to report any sightings of strange silver foxes with demi-gods."

He then told them to go back to bed, not that anyone got much sleep, their cabin mates all wanted to know that had happened, with the exception of Yagura and B.

The next day no one knew much, and were trying to find out, but Chiron told everyone not to bring up the matter. Percy looked really confused and looked to his sister, who just smiled and said it wasn't important. Both foxes were okay after the event, but neither had any recollection of what had happened that night, other than Whiskers telling Bandit what he had learned from the jinchuuriki.

Time passed quickly after that, the only thing that was interesting was Grover earning his searchers licence and leaving to find Pan. The jinchuuriki weren't that interested in that though.

One thing that had slowly become a big thing in camp though, was using Yagura's boat to watch movies. Each jinchuuriki slowly began to bring only their siblings there, watching Monty Python, until the Stolls brought a few new movies from gods knows where and the Hermes cabin was invited to join in. Then the Demeter cabin started to supply popcorn (apparently one of the only snacks their mom approved of) and they too were invited. Castor and Pollux brought along some drinks and were suddenly invited, then Clarisse came to some sort of agreement with the jinchuuriki and they let her cabin in, so long as they behaved themselves.

So now, the boat was now used for watching movies when the demi-gods had the time, normally in between training. Chiron eventually stepped in when a few Hermes kids skipped classes to watch spider-man, and had made an arrangement that they were only allowed in at certain times.

The jinchuuriki soon became used to the other demi-gods and were opening up to everyone in the camp now. For the first time they felt wanted, they felt like they belonged. Sure, some of the kids wanted them there because they had access to the only TV in camp, but the majority of campers tried to get to know them, in Yugito's case sometimes to much so, as several of the more… confident kids had learned.

They had even been teaching some of the kids some taijutsu, not much, but enough to be able to fight without a weapon in their hands and come out on top. But, to most campers surprise, the jinchuuriki refused to take part in any games of capture the flag, they didn't give a reason, they just sat it out. Sometimes they would advise some of their siblings, Roshi was particularly good at this, but other than that, they would just watch.

Weeks passed by quickly, until it was the last night of summer camp, after today only year rounders would be staying at camp. They all had one last meal together, had a lot of fun, acted like any other night, and then at the camp fire, the councillors gave out the end of summer beads. This year, the councillors had a hard time choosing between two things, the arrival of the jinchuuriki, or the arrival of Percy, and his quest.

In the end, they chose the one that had impacted them the most, and though the TV was a good incentive, the whole stopping a war among the gods thing was just slightly more impactful. A sea green trident on a black background, Luke said a few words before giving them out, saying how Percy one by a small margin to the TV, which caused laughter all round.

Everyone cheered, and the night was a great way to end it all.

The next morning Percy and Yagura were silently looking at the sheet each of them had received, the jinchuuriki had all decided to stay at camp for a while at least, they would search as best they could on the basis that Naruto was with a demi-god, and that the demi-gods would all try and make it here. The Roman camp was covered by Garra, and to be honest, the jinchuuriki weren't that fond of their Roman side, too much like an army, like their old home.

But they were now both trying to think of what Percy should do, he had come to her for advice. The selfish part of her wanted to tell him to stay at camp so she would see him any time she wanted, but she could see the doubt he felt, he explained that he didn't want to leave his mom.

She really wanted him to stay regardless, but, she wanted what was best for him and at the moment, it looked like that was spending some time with his mom.

"I think it's your choice in the end." Yagura said.

"I know, but I want to know what you think would be best."

Yagura was silent for a moment before she took a deep breathe, "I think that you should think over it for a while by yourself. Think it over and then come to a decision your happy with."

"You can visit you know." Percy said.

Yagura looked confused, "what do you mean?"

"Mom said your welcome to come any time, wait here" he rummaged around under his bunk before pulling a letter out, "read the bit at the bottom."

"P.S. You can tell your sister that she is welcome over any time, I don't know her much, but you seem to like her, so she's welcome here any time she wants." Yagura read out, she looked surprised as she read it.

"See," Percy said, "so it won't be like I won't see you all year, I'm not that far away."

"Right… yeah." Yagura still seemed to be struggling to process it.

Percy looked outside, "I think I'm going to go to the arena, train for a bit while I think on it." He said before leaving.

So Yagura decided to talk to her brothers, Utakata and Garra may still be in the link, it was still early morning for them. When she got there she was right, Utakata was chatting to Garra, who looked irritable.

"Hey," she said, gaining their attention.

"Hey sis," Utakata replied, a small smile on his face, "long time no see."

"Hey," Garra grunted.

"What's wrong with you?" Yagura asked.

Garra scowled at the ground, "Kankuro, didn't I tell you he lost the election?"

"Yeah, that was ages ago though, you said him, and that other kid lost it, him because he lost control so easily, and the other kid for being a little bitch about it."

"Yeah, Germanicus has been a pain about it, but it's Kankuro who's been worse now, he's got a grudge against me now, and I don't know why."

"That must be annoying." Yagura said sympathetically.

"It is," he sighed, "but you don't need to get involved, what are you doing here so early?"

"Percy," she said, "his mom… she offered to let me visit any time I want, and I just don't…"

"Because she's human?" Garra said.

She nodded, "he says she's the nicest woman in the world and she did seem alright when I met her… but…"

"You could give her a chance." Utakata said, "she might be like Mei in the end."

Yagura winced at the name of one of her closest friends, "yeah, I guess." Suddenly Yagura found herself being shaken awake, "sorry, someone's waking me, see you tonight."

When she woke, she found Annabeth shaking her, she looked worried.

"What's going on?" Yagura asked.

"Percy was attacked." Annabeth said.

Percy's skin was grey when she entered the infirmary, Chiron said that would go away, and that he had done all he could do. Yagura felt sick looking at him like that, so weak, so vulnerable. For a second Percy was replaced with a blonde boy with whisker marks on his face. Argus sat at the door, watching solemnly. Yagura sat next to him and grabbed his hand as he slept. Annabeth sat on his other side, sometimes she would administer some nectar to him as his colour returned, the two of them sat in silence, until:

"Here we are again," Percy said as he opened his eyes.

"You idiot," Annabeth said, trying (and failing) to hide the happiness in her eyes that he was okay. "You were green and turning grey when we found you. If it weren't for Chiron's healing..."

Yagura staid strangely silent while Annabeth said this, simply staring at her little brother as he shifted about on the bed to get more comfortable.

"Now, now," Chiron said. "Percy's constitution deserves some of the credit." He smiled at the boy from the bottom of his bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Like my insides have been frozen, then microwaved." Percy replied with a groan.

"Apt, considering that was pit scorpion venom. Now you must tell me, if you can, exactly what happened."

Between sips of nectar, he told them the story, he said about how it was Luke all along, how he had been playing everyone from the start. When he was done, the room was quiet for a long time.

"I can't believe that Luke..." Annabeth's voice faltered. Her expression turned angry and sad. "Yes. Yes, I can believe it. May the god's curse him... He was never the same after his quest."

"This must be reported to Olympus," Chiron murmured. "I will go at once."

"Luke is out there right now," Percy said, sitting up. "I have to go after him."

"No!" Yagura said drawing the whole rooms attention to her, "no, you barely survived this time, you can't go looking for him."

"I need to, it's my fault he got away, I need to stop him." Again, Yagura saw Naruto instead of Percy, it hurt to see how similarly they were acting.

"Let the gods take care of it for now, they can-"

"The gods won't even talk about Kronos," Percy snapped. "Zeus declared the matter closed!"

"Percy, I know this is hard. But you must not rush out for vengeance. You aren't ready." Chiron calmly said.

They were all silent at that, none of them knowing what to say, until Percy seemed to remember something:

"Chiron... your prophecy from the Oracle... it was about Kronos, wasn't it? Was I in it? And Annabeth?"

Chiron glanced nervously at the ceiling. "Percy, it isn't my place-"

"You've been ordered not to talk to me about it, haven't you?"

His eyes were sympathetic, but sad. "You will be a great hero, child. I will do my best to prepare you. But if I'm right about the path ahead of you ..."

Thunder boomed overhead, rattling the windows.

"All right!" Chiron shouted. "Fine!"

He sighed in frustration. "The gods have their reasons, Percy. Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing."

"We can't just sit back and do nothing," Percy said.

"We will not sit back," Chiron promised. "But you must be careful. Kronos wants you to come unravelled. He wants your life disrupted, your thoughts clouded with fear and anger. Do not give him what he wants. Train patiently. Your time will come."

"Assuming I live that long."

Chiron put his hand on my ankle. "You'll have to trust me, Percy. You will live. But first you must decide your path for the coming year. I cannot tell you the right choice... But you must decide whether to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, or return to the mortal world for seventh grade and be a summer camper. Think on that. When I get back from Olympus, you must tell me your decision."

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Chiron promised. "Argus will watch over you, and your sister is here for you."

He glanced at Annabeth. "Oh, and, my dear... whenever you're ready, they're here."

Percy looked confused and asked, "who's here?"

He didn't get a reply, as Chiron rolled himself out of the room, Yagura didn't know what he meant and Annabeth seemed reluctant to answer, choosing simply to stare at the ice in the nectar.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked her.

"Nothing." She set the glass on the table. "I... just took your advice about something. You... um... need anything?"

"Yeah. Help me up. I want to go outside."

"No," Yagura said, "you need to rest."

"She's right, that isn't a good idea." Annabeth agreed.

He slid off the bed and both girls grabbed him, taking a shoulder each they lifted him up a bit.

"Stubborn, Baka." Yagura muttered.

Annabeth said, "I told you..." At the same time.

"I'm fine," Percy insisted.

They took it slowly, a step at a time, Argus followed behind them keeping his distance but always within reach.

By the time they were at the porch, Percy's face was beaded with sweat, but he had managed to make it all the way to the railing.

It was dusk. The camp looked completely deserted. The cabins were dark and the volleyball pit silent. No canoes cut the surface of the lake. Beyond the woods and the strawberry fields, the Long Island Sound glittered in the last light of the sun.

"What are you going to do?" Annabeth asked. Yagura gazed at him too, interested in his answer.

"I don't know." Percy admitted.

Annabeth pursed her lips, then said quietly, "I'm going home for the year, Percy."

Percy gaped at her. "You mean, to your dad's?"

She pointed toward the crest of Half-Blood Hill, next to Thalia's pine tree, at the very edge of the camp's magical boundaries, a family stood silhouetted. Two little children, a woman, and a tall man with blond hair, they looked like they were waiting.

"I wrote him a letter when we got back," Annabeth said. "When you went to the underworld for your mom, and you asked what I would do... I wanted to give him another chance, so I wrote… I said I was sorry, that I'd come home for the school year if he still wanted me. He wrote back immediately. We decided... we'd give it another try."

"That took guts."

She pursed her lips. "You won't try anything stupid during the school year, will you? At least... not without sending me an Iris-message?"

Percy smiled. "I won't go looking for trouble. I usually don't have to."

"When I get back next summer," she said, "we'll hunt down Luke. We'll ask for a quest, but if we don't get approval, we'll sneak off and do it anyway. Agreed?"

"Sounds like a plan worthy of Athena."

She held out her hand, and Percy shook it.

"Take care, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said. "Keep your eyes open."

"You too, Wise Girl."

That entire conversation Yagura was feeling like a third wheel, as she watched the way the two of them interacted, it felt like she shouldn't have been there. When she left, she felt guiltily happy. So, the two children of Poseidon watched her walk up the hill and join her family. She gave her father an awkward hug and looked back at the valley one last time. She touched Thalia's pine tree, then allowed herself to be lead over the crest and into the mortal world.

They sat in silence for a short while, before Percy turned to look at his sister, "I'll be back next summer," he promised. "I'll survive until then. I'll be back to see you soon, until then, come and visit when you want."

Yagura looked at her little brother with a small smile on her face, "yeah, I'll visit as much as I can."

 **A/N: Okay, Lightning thief done, now sea of monsters. I feel like this was a little rushed so, I'm sorry if that ruined anything for you.**

 **Oh, also, I need some ideas for what Bianca should use as a weapon. I know Nico's and Utakata's, as you've seen, but I have no clue for Bianca, I could go for a bow, or knives, or a sword like Nico, but I kind of want to make it more unique. Any ideas would be helpful, if you have any then PM or review.**

 **Thank you for reading, I hope you have enjoyed the story so far, and I'll see you soon in the sea of monsters, oh, and last warning for reading my last attempt, because once I get started back again, I'll be deleting that version forever. Again, you'll probably have no clue what's going on unless you read the original version of this story, but, it's up to you.**


End file.
